Je Na Sais Quoi

Disclaimer: RWBY is the intellectual property of Monty Oum and Rooster Teeth. I claim no ownership.


It was there. It was definitely there.

What 'it' was, though, was something that completely escaped Jaune.

It was like the answer to a question that stayed just beyond the reach of his tongue.

Like a sentence missing an adjective; unnecessary, but important at the same time.

It was an ephemeral feeling that danced at the edge of his comprehension. Close enough to brush against his fingertips, but too far to grasp.

And he wanted to grasp it. He wanted to know exactly what it was that taunted him so.

He wanted to know why he was so interested in Blake Belladonna.


He was glancing at her again. Just like he had for the past two days.

He didn't stare. He never stared. He only took short looks at her.

It should bother her. If anyone else were to do it, she would call them out on it. But she didn't. It didn't bother her one bit. If anything, she felt...happy.

His attention, hesitant though it was, was like splashes of cold water in a desert she didn't even know she inhabited. It was refreshing. Soothing. She wanted him to notice her.

Why, though? Why did she value Jaune Arc's attention so much?


During one of his several glances, she looked up and caught his eyes.

At first, he thought she would get angry with him. Demand to know why he kept looking at her like some creepy stalker.

There was no anger in her gaze, though. Only questions. Questions he could provide no answer with, for those same questions plagued him as well. It seemed as though she knew this, but had to ask them anyway.

Blake looked away first, breaking from the conversation that had no words. He understood why. He did not have the answers she sought, and she could not provide the answers that he sought. To continue their silent conversation would only serve to drown the two of them in this ethereal quagmire they found themselves in.

In this mutual confusion, though, a connection had been forged. It was already far too late for either of them to turn back.


They had begun to interact more. No full conversations took place. They were far too different to hold anything resembling a true conversation. But they would greet each other every time they met. They would provide each other polite inquiries about the quality of their day or the state of their being.

Their respective teams were surprised by the sudden interaction between the two, but given the inanity of it, it fell off their radar fairly quickly.

That was just fine. It was easier this way. No one to continue to question the vague relationship they themselves did not understand.


It hit like a falling fruit. Quiet, sudden, but unable to be disregarded in the slightest.

Blake had volunteered for a Semblance demonstration in class. As she passed Jaune, he politely waved at her. In raising his hand, though, his fingers brushed against her bare arm.

Words could not fully explain what had happened in that moment.

Metaphorical lightning arced from the point of contact and set her blood aflame with passion. Her ears were suddenly filled with blank noise and her vision became unclear. Her heart and lungs both ceased functioning for a beat. The whole of reality seemed to disintegrate and left her in a world of sheer feeling.

It all disappeared as suddenly as it arrived though. The sound and sight of the classroom reappeared, her heart continued beating, and her lungs took in air. Her graceful stride experienced a sudden hitch, but she went along with it casually.

The experience did not leave her unaffected, though. Her hands were quivering and her chest felt tight. She didn't dare look back to see if Jaune had felt it too.

She just didn't know what she would do if she saw him in the same state as her.


She had begun to enter his dreams.

It was innocent at first. A simple smile. A flip of her hair.

It slowly got worse.

Piece by piece, dream by dream, her clothes would disappear until all that was left was bare skin. Meanwhile she would get closer and closer to him. Her friendly eyes became sinfully inviting. Her trivial words morphed into sultry whispers. She would beckon him to touch her. To feel her. To please her.

Freed from the constraints of reality, his dream self would gladly oblige.

Her skin would be soft as silk. Her hair, a curtain of glossy raven locks, would be splayed behind her. Her voice, soft and pleading, was like velvet to his ears. Every movement she made, every gasp that left her mouth, every plea for more that entered his ears dragged him further and further until he was drowning in her very essence.

There was always something, though. Some small niggling that always reminded him that it wasn't real. It would slowly become louder and louder until it screamed at him that he was dreaming.

Then he would wake up.

The sensations stayed with him afterwards, though. They were vague, incomplete, but they were there.


There was a tense atmosphere between the two of them now. She felt it, she knew he felt it, and everyone on their teams seemed to feel it.

Ruby would look helplessly lost. Weiss would staunchly act as though it wasn't there. Yang would try to break it with a joke. Pyrrha would attempt to ask Jaune what was wrong (and get a sheepish smile and shrug in response). Ren would do what Weiss did. Nora seemed to be the only one sincerely oblivious to it all.

She knew she could break this atmosphere. Both Jaune and her could do it. They were obviously the cause of. It seemed so simple to just make it go away.

But she couldn't. She didn't know how. She knew she should know how. But she didn't. She didn't even know what was causing this heaviness.

A voice in the back of her mind said she did know. It was too quiet for her to hear, though. It was white noise that only added to her quiet frustration.


It was eating at Jaune.

Day and night, it never left him alone. It enveloped his thoughts and filled his dreams. It hovered over his head like a fly that would not go away. It would slip through his fingers as he attempted to grab it, and ignoring it only made it more poignant.

It was worse when she was nearby. Her presence made 'it' buzz loudly in his hears. It would muddy his vision until she was all that he could see. Food turned to ash in his mouth, and drinks became naught but air. She became the only tangible thing in his world.

It scared him. It scared him so much.

But laced with that fear was a sense of...right.

It was as though she were the missing piece to a puzzle that he desperately needed to solve. As though she were the palette needed to add color to the blank canvas that was his life.

He needed her. But the question was if she wanted him.


Blake had figured it out.

It quickly became unbearable with the realization, though. She could not wait on him to figure it out.

She wanted Jaune. She needed him. She craved him.

Blake would never admit it out loud. It was inappropriate. Unnecessary. No one but her needed to know those exact words.

She would tell him in private. Away from curious eyes and open ears. She did not want anyone else to witness it. To give it tangible bearing among her peers would only trivialize it.


It ended with a spar.

Professor Goodwitch called them both up for a brief spar. The air seemed to get heavier as they both stood across from each other. Students began to whisper between each other, all them wondering what Jaune had done to piss off the normally cool-headed girl. Glynda briefly wondered if allowing them to spar with such obvious tension was such a good idea, before deciding that it would be better for the both of them to get it all out now. She would be prepared to step in, just in case.

"Begin," Glynda called out.

They both charged each other without a moment's hesitation. They were driven by purpose. A need to vent all that had been built up between them the past few weeks. A mere second before they clashed, their eyes met.

Sudden understanding passed between the two of them in that one second. They finally clashed.

Not in combat, though.

Their weapons skidded across the stage loudly as they were carelessly cast aside. Every student watching was confused by the tactic until they looked back at the pair. Glynda stood ramrod straight with her mouth agape and her eyes wide, staring disbelievingly at the stage.

The silence that had descended upon the class was pierced by a loud gasp that escaped Blake's mouth.

Goodwitch took that as her cue to step in.


It was gone, now. That seemingly inescapable cloud of something that hung over Blake and Jaune had disappeared the moment of their 'revelation'.

It was a relief. The whole world didn't seem so muted anymore, they could once again focus on the trivial things in life, and they had both found the one that made them happy.

Said 'revelation', though had garnered them more attention than either of them wanted. Ruby and Pyrrha were unable to look at either of them without blushing horribly, Yang had abundant ammo for teasing, Weiss would always give them both the dirtiest scowl she could muster, Ren was again staunchly ignoring it, Nora wouldn't stop going on about 'the right way to wrestle', and the whole school knew them as 'the two that got it on during class'.

They had never seen Professor Goodwitch look so outraged before.

It was fine, though. They could put up with all of this.

Jaune gently squeezed Blake's hand, and she squeezed back.

They had each other now.


A/N: Whew. This one was a doozy. Would you believe me if I told you that the idea for this appeared right after I posted Chapter 3 of Warmth in Winter? I just had to write it up and get it out. I don't seriously ship Jaune and Blake (which I will hereby refer to as Black Moon because why not). I just think it's funny that Miles (Jaune's VA) and Arryn (Blake's VA) are in a relationship, but their characters are so different that it's unlikely the two will ever seriously interact.

Drop a review, or don't. This is something I just pumped out to remove from my head.