It's been an hour since Cinder had returned to the dance floor after narrowly escaping Ruby and General Ironwood's guards from the tower. Since then, many of the students began to grow tired of dancing and return to their dorms in order to rest up for tomorrow's missions. There were only about a dozen or so people left in the ballroom, including Jaune, still clad in the dress he wore as a promise to Pyrrha, all his teammates from JNPR, as well as Yang and Weiss amongst some of the remaining teachers. The rest were saying their farewells or getting one last glass of punch for the road. Jaune, on the other hand, decided to go back out to the balcony for some fresh air. He stood out there on his own for a good few minutes before a familiar voice snapped him out of it.
"Hey, Jaune."
The blonde swordsman turned to see his teammates, Ren and Nora, standing in the doorway leading back to the stairs. Well, Ren was standing. Nora was out cold, slung over her friend's back, probably tuckered out from all the dancing and partying.
"Hey, Ren." He greeted. "You two headed back to the dorms?"
The martial artist shrugged. "We might as well. Most of the attendees have left already."
Jaune gave a nod in response. "Okay, you can go on ahead. I'll catch up." he acknowledged.
Ren gave a nod in return as he turned to leave. Nora started mumbling in her sleep as she was carried away.
"...zzz...No, Mister Ursa...I'M the queen of the pancake castle...zzz" she droned on happily in her unconscious fantasy.
The duo began to descend the stairs and passed another familiar face on the way: Weiss. Jaune once again sensed that he wasn't the only one on the balcony and turned to face the heiress walking up next to him. They exchanged a wave to each other as a silent way of saying hello and stared out to the backdrop of the night again.
"So...pretty great party, right?" Jaune asked, striking up a conversation to break the silence before it became awkward.
"It had its moments." Weiss agreed.
Another moment of silence barreled through before the two both turned to each other at the same time.
"Can I be honest about something?" they both asked each other, before shutting their mouths and exchanging a short laugh of embarassment.
"Oh. Um, heh heh. Sorry, you go first." Jaune apologized.
"No,no. It's okay, you can start." Weiss countered, causing the swordsman to give a sigh before continuing.
"Alright..."he started before pausing to think of the right words. "Weiss...I just wanted to say...I really like you. And not just because you're a rich girl or a good fighter. You're beautiful, smart, an amazing singer...but I know you like Neptune, so...as long as he can make you happy, I'll be happy."
Weiss blushed slightly. Nobody had ever confessed their feelings to her in such a way. "I see...Well, I'm kinda glad you feel that way." Weiss admitted. "And I wanted to say I'm sorry."
Jaune raised an eyebrow. "Sorry? About what?" he asked.
Weiss looked from the shattered moon above them and to the knight to her left. "About how I went about shooting you down all those times. Usually when guys start overcompensating just to ask me out, I feel like they're just doing it because of my family name. It's kind of why Pyrrha and I aren't so different." she explained.
"Yeah...She was talking to me about that before I had to put on this thing." he grinned, gesturing to his dress and illiciting an uncharacteristic giggle from the so-called Ice Queen of Beacon.
"Exactly." Weiss nodded. "Also, I haven't really confessed my feelings to Neptune like you just did. That's another thing Pyrrha and I have in common now that I think about it."
Jaune did a double take at the last statement. "Wait, what?" he asked.
"You mean you didn't know, you dolt?" Weiss said with an annoyed tone, before quickly changing it quickly. "Look, Pyrrha really likes you, maybe even more so than you do me. Whenever we talk from time to time, she almost turns as red as Ruby's hood when you get brought up in the conversation.
Jaune looked taken aback by this information. A champion duelist extremely confident in her abilities was too shy to admit she liked him? Is that what she was talking about back before he put on the dress? "Wow. I had no idea..." he said, looking down to the ground below them.
"Clearly." Weiss huffed, before noticing a hurt expression on the knight's face after her comment. "Sorry. Anyway, Jaune...What I'm trying to say is thank yoy, but I only like you as a friend. Only fools chase after silver when gold is sitting right in front of them." she said, using an old saying her grandmother taught her about when she was young.
"Huh, who knew you had a talent for metaphors too?" Jaune smirked.
"Stay on topic, please." Weiss replied. "Do you at least understand what I'm trying to say?"
Jaune looked at her with a smile. "Yeah...Yeah, I think I do." he answered.
Weiss returned the grin before leaning in close. "You know, you're actually a pretty good guy, Jaune.." she commented, before to the blonde's surprise, gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "...And next year? Try wearing something that shows a little less leg. You're an Arc, not a tramp."
Jaune stood there for a moment, speechless and face flushed before replying. "Heh. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Weiss." he nodded.
The Schnee gave a genuine smile and nodded back as she turned to leave, noticing Pyrrha coming up the stairway as she made her way towards it. As they passed, she gave a wink to the crimson-haired champion as if to say "He's all yours." She then left as Pyrrha made her way towards Jaune.
"Jaune, it's getting late. Shouldn't we get going home?" she asked.
Jaune turned to face his teammate. "Yeah, let's go." he agreed, leaving his post at the balcony and followed the Spartan warrior back to the ballroom, lightly taking her hand in his as they descended the stairs to her surprise.
Pyrrha blushed and tried to sputter out a query as Jaune did this. "Oh, um...W-what is..." she managed to get out.
"It's alright, I'm just testing something." Jaune smiled, allowing her to calm down and understand what he was trying to do.
Pyrrha quickly calmed down, but not enough for her blush to fade as they made it to the ground floor. "Oh, o-okay." she said as she looked over the remaning crowd left in the ballroom. There was a long pause in activity among the first year Beacon students still present, many giving a stare that screamed "OTP CONFIRMED." while the blonde brawler who setup the party earlier simply gave a thumbs up. The two ignored them all as they walked straight from the base of the staircase to out the front doors and down the path that led back to the dorms.
"So...is your test going well?" Pyrrha asked, noting that her team leader still hadn't let go of her hand, despite the puddle of sweat that had formed in her palm since they descended the stairs.
Jaune chuckled and gave his teammate a kiss on the cheek, causing her to blush even more. "It's going great." he smiled, getting one in return as the newly formed couple returned to their room to rest up for tomorrow's mission.
Hey, guys. I just had to finish this to try and lighten the mood around here, something much happier than what I'm normally writing if you've read some of my previous one-shots like The Fallen Samurai or A Speechless Meeting. It's actually an idea for a deleted scene-writing contest on a private forum I was part of that had us write up a scene from an anime that we wished would've happened in the actual episode. I ended up losing to a writer much better than me, but I still held onto it, and edited it down to something that I could turn into a one shot. I hope you guys enjoyed it and it at least cheered you up a little after these past few days.