Pyrrha was telling Yang about how Jaune had defeated the Ursa the previous day "...and then he beheaded the beast. It was quite a sight to see."

Yang was rather astonished at this considering that she had seen him fight during initiation "He saved Cardin from an Ursa?"

Pyrrha nodded "yes."

Yang shook her head in disbelief "He saved Cardin?"

Pyrrha nodded "yes."

Yang looked across the room at the boy who was now being served his food "From an Ursa?"

Pyrrha nodded "yes."

Yang smiled at her and tilted her head "Are you sure we're talking about the same Jaune Arc?"

Pyrrha laughed and nodded "Ask him yourself."

Jaune sat at the table next to Yang and across from Pyrrha "Hey guys! what were you two just talking about?"

Yang answered with a question "Did you really save cardin by decapitating an Ursa Major?"

Jaune blushed at the attention. He rubbed his neck and gave a half-hearted laugh "Yeah, i really did. I guess Pyrrha told you too." He turned to Pyrrha "Is there anyone left in the school you haven't told yet?"

Pyrrha thought for a moment "There are a few people in Glee Club i haven't told yet."

Yang gave the boy an impressed look "I've gotta say. I didn't think you had it in you. Congrats dude." She held out her fist.

Jaune gave her a fist bump and a half-hearted laugh "thanks"

Pyrrha saw Blake walking out of the lunch room and stood up "Hey Jaune, i'll see you around, ok?"

Jaune looked up at her "Oh ok, bye!"

Yang looked at the boy beside her. He was quite tall and much more muscular than was initially obvious. She decided to be a bit impulsive and humor an idea that popped into her head "Hey Jaune"

"Huh?" Jaune turned his attention back to her from watching Nora piling food onto Ren's plate.

Yang spoke with a calm tone and a slight smile "Do you wanna go out with me sometime?"

Jaune got a bit nervous "Like on a date?"

Yang confirmed "Yeah, like on a date."

Jaune looked at the girl next to him. She was very attractive. She was funny, and much smarter than was initially obvious. But she was also a very good friend. He didn't have a lot of those. He responded being very careful about his wording "Well i'm not going to lie. You are very attractive. And i had thought about the idea in the past. But you've also been a really good friend to me and i don't want to ruin that. I'm sorry. Are you ok?"

Yang looked at him for a moment before laughing a little "Of course i'm ok. I was asking you out, not proposing. Calm down Romeo. I just thought we could go on a single date and try it out for a bit. And if it doesn't work out we can just go back to being friends." She gave him a reassuring smile.

Jaune relaxed a bit. She wasn't as into him as he had momentarily feared. He laughed a little and smiled back at her "Ok then, let's try it out."

Yang grinned at this "Great! maybe tomorrow evening? We could go to that fancy Atlasian restaurant that just opened across the street from Lazor Blaztor Ultra. Do you know where that is?"

Jaune nodded "Yeah, i used to go there as a kid. My mom and I would always team up against my dad. He always slaughtered us pretty badly. So maybe I can pick you up around 8? I have to get back to the dorm by 11:30 or Pyrrha will think Cardin has done something and break his legs."

Yang laughed "Yeah that's fine. I get off my last class of the day at 6:30 so that should give me plenty of time to get ready."

Jaune looked at the clock and realized he had to go to his next class "Great, I'll see you there. Bye."

Yang waved at him energetically as he walked away "Goodbye!" She turned back to her food and started to demolish the meal in seemingly no time at all. She stopped for a moment to chew and think. This turn of events should prove interesting.

The next day she got off her last class and sprinted back to the dorm. She quickly hopped into the shower. Once she got out she put on a towel and walked over to her bed to pick out an outfit. She eventually settled on a dress that she had gotten as a present from Ruby a few years ago. It was much more modest than her usual clothing with the neckline only going about as low as her scarf usually hung. She was just about to take off her towel when she heard the knock at the door. She looked over at the clock. Had it really already been a half hour since she got out of the shower?

She heard Jaune through the door "Yang? Hello?"

She yelled back at him while grabbing the dress and running for the bathroom "Just a minute!"

Jaune asked her somewhat awkwardly "Can i come in?"

Yang poked her head out of the bathroom to answer "Yeah, just count backwards from ten first." She shut the bathroom door and started to change.

Jaune entered the room only to find Yang absent. His confusion was answered when he heard a loud bang from the bathroom followed by a word he would rather not repeat "Yang? are you ok?"

Yang held her throbbing foot while hopping on the other "Yeah, i'm fine. Just getting changed. I'll be a few minutes if you want to make yourself comfortable."

Jaune sat on one of the beds and set down the yellow rose next to him. He looked over at the "Achieve Men" poster on the wall. He had remembered hearing a cover they had done of one of Weiss's songs the other day. He didn't think they were very good. He suddenly got very nervous when he noticed the precarious stack of books that was holding up the bed suspended directly above his head. He grabbed the rose and stood. He considered sitting on the other bed but that situation seemed even more unstable than the bunk he had just left. His dilemma was rendered obsolete when he heard the bathroom door open. He turned around and saw Yang in a sunshine yellow dress. He stared for a moment before commenting "Wow Yang, you look beautiful."

Yang pointed at the boy "Well don't sound so surprised about it. I clean up good!"

Jaune laughed "Sorry"

Yang looked at the boy standing in front of her. He was wearing a dark green suit with a yellow tie that matched her dress perfectly. She smiled at him "You don't look to bad yourself hot stuff."

Jaune imitated her previous reaction "Well don't sound so surprised about it. I clean up good!"

Yang laughed at how accurate his impression was. He was frighteningly good at that. Jaune fell back into his previous stance and held out his hand with the rose in it. Yang plucked the rose from his fingers and smelled it.

The two walked to the restaurant. Yang made several terrible puns and Jaune tripped over nothing at all numerous times. Jaune would always laugh at the jokes and Yang would always help him up onto his feet.

Once they arrived at the restaurant Jaune held the door open for her and they found a table for 2 in a corner of the room. The restaurant was large with several expensive chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. The tables lined the walls and there was a large dance floor in the center. in the middle of the dance floor there was a platform where a band played soft atmospheric music. They only ordered one item on the menu because that proved to be all they could afford. They stole a fork from the table behind them and made short work of the pasta that they had agreed upon.

Yang stood and held out her hand "May I have this dance?"

Jaune stood and took the offer "You may indeed."

The two walked over to the empty dance floor and Yang quickly realized that this music wasn't going to cut it. She let go of Jaune's hand and ran over to the band. After she had whispered a few words in the stand-up bass player's ear a huge smile sprouted on his face and he nodded. She ran back over to Jaune "Sorry, I just had to get us some real music to dance to."

The band followed the bassist's lead and started playing a very jazzy alternate arrangement of "I Burn" Jaune listened for a second before asking "Isn't this one of Weiss's songs?" Yang nodded as she pulled him out into the middle of the room.

He then realized that she had never seen him dance before. He spun her around and started to dance like only he knew he could. A look of amazement came to Yang's face as the boy moved with unbelievable precision and speed considering how many times he had fallen over just walking to the restaurant. He seemed like a completely different person now. More confident but without being creepy like he had been with "snow angel".

They twirled around the room in perfect unison. Once the music reached its climax Jaune spun Yang one more time this time leading into a dip. The song ended and they quickly noticed that the whole restaurant was staring at them. Yang decided to give them something to look at and pulled Jaune into a kiss. It was a great kiss. In fact it was the best kiss Yang had ever had. But when they pulled away they both knew that they were both thinking the same thing.

Jaune spoke up first "This isn't really going to work."

Yang stepped back a bit from the boy and let go of his jacket "Yeah" She held out her hand to him "Friends?"

Jaune smiled and took her hand "Definitely friends. Wanna go to Lazor Blaztor Ultra? They're still open for another 2 hours and they have a 2-for-1 deal on their famous mustard pizza on fridays."

Yang grinned "Let's go PWN some N00Bs."

The two walked across the street and got into a game less than 15 minutes later. They stood back-to-back shooting anything that came into sight. Yang would take out the snipers while Jaune dealt with the more obvious threats. Once they got their scorecards they sat down to eat their pizza. Jaune had gotten an easy 1st with almost double Yang's score. Her score was easily ten times 3rd place. Once they had finished their pizza they signed up for another round. As Yang strapped on her sensor pads over her dress Jaune saw two very familiar faces walk into the prep chamber. It was Ren and Nora.

Ren looked at Jaune in his suit and Yang in her dress "What are you two doing here?"

Jaune held up his Blaztor pistol "PWNing all these N00Bs. What're you doing here?"

Ren answered as Nora strapped on all of his sensor pads for him "We always play Lazor Blaztor Ultra on fridays."

Nora almost screamed "2-for-1 on mustard pizza! I really love mustard pizza. Ooh! Ren! We should learn how to make mustard pizza! Would that be breaking copyright law? Is mustard pizza copyrighted? Can you even copyright food? Wait, of course you can. If you couldn't then everyone would just make mustard pizza. We'd probably get sued. But how would they know that we had done it? Maybe they have cameras in our dorms. Or maybe they have cameras in our eyes!" She started staring into Ren's eyes very intently searching for a hidden camera.

Yang loaded up her first ammo cartridge "Want to make a little friendly wager?"

Ren looked at her "What kind of wager?"

Jaune answered "4th place gives 1st twenty Lien. 3rd gives 2nd five."

Ren thought for a moment "Seems fair. Nora?"

Nora's eyes tightened into a glare that all present had trouble looking at "Y'all are going down! Down i say! down!"

Jaune turned to Yang "It's been a pleasure serving with you. I'll see you on the battlefield."

Yang saluted and they all turned towards separate doors. The match started and they were off. They all navigated the maze of corridors and chambers with expert ease. Nora found Ren first and sniped him before he even knew she was there. Yang heard the voice over the speakers "REN HAS BEEN ELIMINATED" and knew that there were some real threats this time.

She easily took out a few campers in the area she had come to call "the closet" and started to track a trail of footsteps above her. She rounded a corner and in the corner of her eye just barely spotted the Lazor sights in time. She jumped behind cover as Nora pumped several shots into the wall where Yang had been. Yang watched the Lazor sights move through the air. She saw it flicker and knew Nora had hovered past one of the many pillars that scattered the area. Yang knew exactly where each of those pillars were. She thought for a moment silently calculating where Nora was hiding. She eventually figured out that Nora was in the west end crows nest 3 levels up from Yang. She pulled out her rifle and activated the sights. She'd get one shot at this before Nora could take her out. She swung around the corner and aimed directly at where she knew Nora would be. She pulled the trigger and Nora's chestplate went dark "NORA HAS BEEN ELIMINATED"

Yang smirked at herself for a moment before she heard the voice again "YANG HAS BEEN ELIMINATED" Her smile dropped as she looked down. Her chestplate was dark. She turned around and saw Jaune holding out his Blaztor pistol. The four regrouped outside and pulled out the scorecards. Ren handed Jaune 20 Lien and Nora asked Ren for 5 Lien to give to Yang. He gave Yang the money and they all ate pizza before walking back to their dorms.

Once they got back Ren and Nora entered the room. Yang lingered with Jaune in the hallway "I'm glad we gave it a shot. Now we know."

Jaune gave her a hug "And our friendship is stronger for it."

Yang agreed "Forged in fire"

Jaune smiled at the comment and turned to his side of the hall "Goodnight Yang."

Yang answered "Goodnight Jaune."

And thus the friendship was forged that would last them both decades to come. They would often look back on that night, but not for it being their first and only date. They would look back on it for the understanding they reached. From that point on both of them understood that not all relationships could be placed on a single scale. Dating wasn't to be considered a "next step" or some greater form of friendship. A real friendship, the kind that would withstand the tests of time, was something different entirely. Something not to be taken lightly. Something that could change both of their lives forever. Such a friendship couldn't just be born without any confusion or chaos. Such a friendship had to be forged. Forged in Fire.