AN: Hey there! It's been literally years since I did anything on this account, I'm sorta back and semi-active now! After Chapter 8 of Volume 3 I felt I had to write something to make myself feel better, this kinda just came out while listening to "Dancing Shoes" by the Arctic Monkeys. It's full of lame references to canon dialogue and silly stuff like that but um, I hope you enjoy the Arkos! Peace out :P
Jaune Arc had to admit it, he was nervous. Not that this was an irregular occurrence for the blonde teen or anything, just that it wasn't something he liked facing a lot. Of course, the boy's time at his first year of College wasn't anything to complain about, he just didn't want to go out partying. It wasn't an activity that really excited the young adolescent. He was quite used to keeping to himself. Unfortunately, his friend on the other side of the phone however, was having none of it.
"C'mon Jaune! Just try it! You have no idea how much fun it can be just to let go a little! I mean you've gotta be just a little stressed out like the rest of us. Like, exams came around so fast and even I've had barely any time to spend together with my buddies! Like Ren! N-Not that we're… Together-Together…"
She may as well have been talking to herself. Jaune sighed, it was going to be difficult to talk his way out of this one. Once Nora had an idea in her head she'd only begin to get more and more excited and assume it was going to happen.
"Do I really have to?"
"Yes~!" Came the singsong reply. "Just this onceeee?"
"Ugh- Fine. I guess it… Couldn't hurt that much."
"Great! Seeya at my place in like, twenty minutes! Okaythanksbye!" The Arc could hear Nora's excited giggling as the phone was hung up.
How hard could it be? His Dad had always told him that the thing that people look for was confidence. Not exactly a trait that the young boy had a lot of.
Jaune dragged his feet a little as he made his way over to the building he recognized as Nora's dorm. He was thinking that maybe this might not be such a great idea, but there wasn't an easy way to back down now.
After being haphazardly shoved into the kitchen whilst Nora carried on getting her stuff together and while they "waited for one more" his eyes widened at the sound of a familiar voice.
"Jaune?"
The voice matched the face alright. One of the school's brightest students, Pyrrha Nikos, was currently in the same room as the boy. This wasn't that rare, they shared a few classes together and had even studied together on the fairly rare occasion. But this situation was very different.
"P-Pyrrha! I um, I didn't know that you were gonna be here." The teen tripped over his words a little bit. Making sure not to stare too much at Pyrrha's… Everything. He instantly felt somewhat underdressed.
"Got drafted in at the last minute, I'm afraid." The redhead spoke softly and did her best to hide her amused smile.
"I didn't have you pinned as the party type to be honest."
"Well… Perhaps there's a lot we both don't know about each other." Pyrrha responded matter-of-factly.
Jaune mentally congratulated himself for sounding like an idiot in front of the girl.
"Are you alright? I'm sure we'll both enjoy ourselves more once we actually get there, right?" She did her best to assure the blonde, given his nervous disposition.
Their conversation didn't really have a lot of time to go anywhere however, as they were interrupted by the doorbell ringing for the last time. Nora had emerged from her room and opened the door with her usual limitless energy. They were met with the usual, somewhat disinterested face of Lie Ren.
His gaze looked over Nora's shoulder during one of her enthused hugs at the two standing in the corridor and mused a short "You guys too huh?" in their direction. Jaune scratched the back of his head sheepishly and Pyrrha clasped her hands together down by her side and giggled a little.
With Nora leading the other more anti-social members of the group with a marching stride so big that it could give any drill sergeant a run for their money, they reluctantly made their way towards the student club in town.
"Well, I think it could be a lot of fun. Don't you Jaune?" Pyrrha broke the silence with some words of encouragement and looked over at Jaune for a response.
"Oh, Y-Yeah. Sure-" He trailed off slightly, hiding the slight shade of red on his face. He felt it important to keep his silly feelings to himself. No matter how into the girl he was, this was Pyrrha Nikos we were talking about here. There's no way she'd be interested in someone like him. They may have spent some time working together and hanging out on the odd occasion, but he felt like that was probably just a formality.
"Atta girl Pyrrha! It's good to get out of the house and do something now and again!" Nora's delighted reply rang out, only for Ren to add:
"She's right. Sometimes it can be beneficial to try doing something that's a little out of your comfort zone or different to your usual day-to-day activities."
The blonde haired boy's heart sank a little. This was going to suck, wasn't it?
Nora was excitedly mingling with others in the crowded room that was blaring music so loud that Jaune wondered if anyone could even hear what they were actually playing. Ren's watchful eye was ever on the spunky girl from his permanent seat at the bar.
Both the remaining members of the group felt a little overwhelmed, it wasn't often that either found themselves in situations like this.
"Whoops! Do I detect negative fun going on over here?" The voice belonged to Yang Xiao Long, the School's resident party animal. She was always good fun to be around, but definitely one of the more involved characters at their place of study. Not that she could hold a candle to Nora when she was fired up, but still.
"Oh, Yang! Hello again~" Pyrrha enthusiastically greeted the golden haired student. "It's not that exactly, it's just that-"
"It's a little too much for you? That's okay! I have the perfect solution!" Yang smirked, the grin practically covered her entire face as she motioned for Pyrrha to sit at the bar with her. Ren's head perked up in amusement. "So, you like a challenge, right?"
"I suppose I can derive some fun in a contest, yes." Pyrrha hesitantly affirmed.
"Well then this ought to be fun!" The two girls moved over to their own corner of the drinks bar, Jaune felt very uncomfortable right now. He had no idea what to do in this situation, all the people that he really knew all that well he had seen already and he didn't exactly want to dance in a group of strangers.
"Okay, sooooo… How well can you hold your alcohol?" Came Yang's prying tone.
"Uh, well- it's not something I've done all that often. N-Not that I haven't at all!" Pyrrha answered, somewhat flustered.
"Oh? So you have drunk before then? Alright, we're gonna play a game. Think you can beat me in a drinking game?"
"Why would I want to do that? That would be a little irresponsibl-"
"Winner gets to dance with Jaune."
"W-What?"
"You heard me! It'll be fun! The winner gets to dance with Jaune." Yang smirked. This would be fun, and just about everyone except Jaune knew that Pyrrha was more than into him.
Pyrrha nodded and shook Yang's hand.
"Actually, now that you mention it... This could be quite entertaining! Very well, I accept." The redhead beamed back at Yang. The two girls grasped their shot glasses that Yang had asked for in preparation firmly and knocked back the liquid. Almost immediately Pyrrha felt the alcohol burn in her throat, she still persisted with swallowing the beverage.
"You still game?" Yang giggled a little as she watched Pyrrha try to contain the need to cough slightly, she couldn't have drunk that much before.
"Y-Yes, I'm still alright!" The somewhat more well-spoken of the two nodded viciously.
Ren subconsciously made a note to ensure that Pyrrha didn't drink herself under the table on her first attempt at drinking for pleasure.
Jaune re-emerged from the bathroom, where he'd retreated to spare himself any more awkwardness, he noticed that the two girls who had left a while back to do whatever it was they planned to do were no longer at the bar. Jaune turned to see Ren in his usual spot.
"Hey Ren? Where'd Pyrrha and Yang g-" He was cut off by Ren gesturing to the centre of the hugely crowded club, Jaune could see Yang dancing with a group of who he assumed were her friends, or other people she was interested in hanging with, Yang was quite good at being a social chameleon and fitting in with other people when it came to having fun. To her right he could see what he could only describe as Pyrrha with a very flushed face, giggling to herself and dancing without a care in the world.
"Don't worry, she's not ridiculously drunk. Just a bit of a lightweight." Ren chuckled to himself a little bit.
"R-Right. Thanks, good talk Ren!" Jaune closed the conversation and made his way slowly over to the large concentration of students. Ren gave a small hand gesture in parting and knocked back the last of his pint.
"Jaaaauneee~" came the voice that the teen hadn't heard for a while. He could attribute it to it's owner fast enough though.
"Nora? How did you do that? Weren't you-"
"Dancing? Yeah! Isn't this so fun?! I'm having a great time! Are you having a great time?" She spoke at a speed he could barely even follow, how did she have so much boundless energy?
"I uh… I guess so."
"You guess so? Then you're not having enough fun!" Nora took hold of Jaune and dragged him further into the crowd before shoving him towards a large congregation of dancing, slightly inebriated students. Nora returned to the lonely looking figure at the bar. "And you! C'mon Ren! You didn't think you could get away with not even dancing once, right?"
Ren put down his empty glass and began to stand. The two of them briefly watched the ensuing consequences of Jaune stumbling… Right into a somewhat drunk Pyrrha Nikos.
"Nora…" Ren's accusatory tone rang out. Nora could only stifle a giggle in retort.
Jaune had instinctively put out his hands to ensure he didn't fall or bump into anyone, but had found them straight on Pyrrha's shoulders.
"Oh! P-Pyrrha, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to uh-" The girl only chuckled at his awkward attempt to apologize. She leaned in close to his ear and spoke in a low voice.
"Hello again Jaune~"
He was dumbfounded for a second. His face was a deeper red than hers and he hadn't even had anything to drink, he was almost frozen in shock at the normally modest Pyrrha's actions. "Well? Are you going to stand there and gawk at me, or do you want to dance?"
"S-Sure, I could go for a dance-" the blonde just about managed to splutter out.
The music almost shifted on cue and the large group of people that were all clumped together began to jump to the pounding beat of the song playing, Jaune was so close to the source of the sound that he could feel the beat vibrate through his whole body. Pyrrha's face was full of joy as she twisted her body to the song and a hearty laugh escaped her lips as her hair was all over the place. Jaune found himself smiling a huge grin too. He could definitely feel his inhibitions slipping away a little. It was still almost like a dream that a girl like Pyrrha would want to dance with him. But he wasn't about to turn down a good thing.
Nora and Ren looked on with amused looks plastered over their faces.
"Ren!"
"Nora."
"This. Is. Happening!"
Ren chuckled and took Nora's hand to lead her onto the floor with the others.
"Yeah, it is." He looked into her eyes with a compassionate expression as Nora's eyes widened with joy and she dragged him further in to enjoy bouncing to the electric rhythm with all of the others.
Nora tapped Ren's nose affectionately with her finger and let out a small "Boop!"
The two of them eventually ended up breaking off into what appeared to be their own perfectly choreographed routine which you could bet any amount of Lien was entirely Nora's idea.
From across the room, Yang looked over at the centre briefly to see Jaune and Pyrrha dancing together.
"Not bad, Vomit Boy." She laughed to herself. Mission accomplished.
Pyrrha stopped bouncing and grabbed Jaune's hands to place them on her sides as she brought her body in very close to his, grinding up against him closely. Jaune did his best to go with the flow, embarrassed beyond belief at this point. Pyrrha only laughed harder at his reaction. "You're rather easy to embarrass, aren't you?"
"W-Well, your face is red too." Jaune defiantly shot back, leading to the honour student's face growing an even deeper shade of red, if that was even possible at this point, as she leant in and planted a brief kiss on the boy's neck. Jaune exhaled deeply at the sensation he had never felt before in his life. "Pyrrha… You shouldn't, you're drunk a-and I'd feel terrible fo-" the girl's gloved hand silenced his speech with a finger on his lips.
"I would want to do this sober too, Jaune. I want this… Want you… A lot." She spoke even lower than before now, almost like a purr as she bit the spot she had recently kissed Jaune's neck, continuing to lick and nibble at it as the boy shivered with euphoria, leaving a small mark on his skin.
"W-Well, hard to argue with that." Jaune smiled brightly at her and hugged the girl close. Pyrrha stuck out one of her hands behind her, which Nora was there on cue to low five with every muscle in her body.
The club had begun to close and the college kids of varying drunken states started to filter out. Pyrrha was still very far from sobering up and was clinging to Jaune's arm like it was about to fall off. The boy didn't mind though, he wore an embarrassed smile on his face as they exited, followed closely by Nora, who had forced Ren to give her a piggy-back ride out of the building. Yang (who was also fairly drunk at this point) came out after them, only to see the rolling eyes of Blake Belladonna staring at her.
"Hey Babe~" Yang snorted with laughter at her partner's unamused face.
"Seriously, where would you be without me? You left your keys at home too. Good thing one of us was smart tonight huh?" Blake smiled, the chastising was only banter, she knew it wouldn't have any effect on the firecracker anyway. Yang had hugged her tightly and leaned in to kiss her. "You stink of alcohol Yang." She bluntly stated. Yang looked at the girl with fake puppy-dog eyes, earning her a sigh from the petite snarker. "… Fine." Blake did her best to hide her blush as the two of them locked lips for a brief moment before she put Yang's arm around her shoulder and started to walk her home.
"Guess we should be doing the same, right?" Jaune turned to Ren for the voice of reason.
"Yes, that would be best for now. Please make sure that Pyrrha's properly looked after Jaune." Ren added with a reassuring nod. Heading off after Nora, who had already started to march home, clutching his head.
Pyrrha had taken off her heels and was clutching them both in one hand as she held onto Jaune's hand with the other.
"Y'know I can uh, take those if it's a pain to hold onto them."
"N-No, that's alright. Thanks though."
"Oh, okay. You're just a little out of it still and I just wanted to know… How can I help?"
Pyrrha smiled gently and clutched his hand a little tighter
"You're already doing it."
The taller redhead had taken her hair out of it's ponytail, Jaune had never seen it down before. She really was beautiful. The way her hair swayed softly as the night's breeze blew past them slowly.
"Did you um, really mean all of that stuff before?"
"Hmm? What stuff?"
"Oh, you know, the whole… Wanting this thing?" Jaune asked more specifically, Pyrrha could only smile.
"Of course Jaune. Even though we hadn't spent a huge amount of time together, you've always appreciated me for the actual person I am, not what I can give you, you treat me the same as everyone else. That's worth a lot to me."
"O-Okay. That's good." The teenager nodded in self-affirmation.
It wasn't long before they had reached Jaune's place, it was actually closer to go to Nora's, but Jaune wagered none of them would want to be around when Nora's cravings for Pancakes hit and a slightly hungover Ren would be "persuaded" into making them.
Jaune had done his best to make his bed so that Pyrrha would be as comfortable as possible on short notice. He'd insisted that he'd rather take the couch or the floor rather than let Pyrrha sleep rough. She was exhausted and looked like she was about to fall over, to be quite honest, he felt the same way. He gave carrying her over to the bed his best shot, just about managing it. Pyrrha's hair splayed out over the pillow as she gently caressed his cheek and looped the hand she'd used to do so around his neck to clumsily pull him into a deep kiss. Jaune let a content smile grace his lips.
"Hey, that was kinda rough."
"I'm sorry!" Pyrrha giggled a little as she apologized.
"No you're not." He dismissed her relaxed apology.
"No… I'm not." The tired girl agreed.
Jaune moved to go and sleep on his couch, but Pyrrha did not release his neck.
"You're staying with me." She spoke forcefully. Jaune blushed a little, earning another chuckle from Pyrrha as he clumsily climbed into the bed next to her, it wasn't really big enough for two people, but this didn't seem to bother either of them.
"Good night, Jaune." Pyrrha snuggled up close to the boy's chest. He wrapped his arms around her tenderly.
"Night, Pyrrha."
The two teens slept soundly for one night. And it was one they wouldn't forget in a hurry.