"Truth or dare?"
Jaune sighed in relief; Yang's question had been addressed to Ruby instead of him, and he had never been gladder. The intimidating blonde had been the most ruthless of the group: in the first round, before anyone else had even asked, she had demanded that Ren strip to his boxers—in the second, Pyrrha and Weiss had been the unlucky subjects of her matchmaking mind and had been instructed to kiss.
Jaune (averting his eyes and blushing for their sakes) would have thought that someone as naturally suspicious as Weiss would have learned from Ren's mistake, but apparently not—unless she wanted to do something like that. Jaune did his best to force his attention back to Ruby before he drifted too far down the confusing and treacherous path of judging others' relationships.
"Dare," decided Ruby bravely, looking her older sister in the eye. Jaune's eyes widened; Ruby hadn't picked 'dare' in either of the first two rounds, and this was hardly an opportune time to do so. He caught himself praying, as Yang bowed her head, that whatever Ruby was told to do didn't involve him—he'd had quite enough of having to attempt to conceal his blossoming feelings for the young scythe-wielder. After all, Nora had asked him in the very first round whether he liked Pyrrha or Ruby better (he had narrowly dodged giving an actual response by saying he couldn't compare the two, but he was sure everyone knew his preference).
Yang straightened up again, and Jaune flinched automatically at the spark of mischief in her eyes. "Take one of us with you and find your way to the ballroom and back without being caught. Oh, and bring back something from inside the ballroom to prove you didn't just hang out outside our door." Yang placed an enthusiastic hand on Ruby's shoulder cheerfully at her sister's nonplussed expression. "Now, who's going with you?"
Jaune glanced around the group quickly, trying to gauge which one stood the best chance of helping Ruby out the most in the 'not getting caught' part of the dare—probably Blake—but was alarmed to find that everyone's eyes were on him—including Ruby's. Oh no. Don't tell me…
"Well, Jaune," she said, clearly attempting to be as cheery as her sister, but failing miserably as trepidation took hold of her girlish features. "I guess this is your dare, too," she continued awkwardly, playing with the edge of her overskirt; Jaune sighed, closing his eyes and trying desperately to summon his limited supply of courage.
"Okay," he found himself saying, giving Ruby a smile that refused to be anything but lopsided. Alone? With the girl I like? I'm definitely gonna die. "Let's go, then. Uh, do you know how to get to the ballroom from here?" he asked, hauling himself stickily to his feet and resenting the heat of the approaching summer.
"Nope," sighed Ruby, head in her hands. "This is going to be so much fun…"
"So, what do you think they're doing now?"
Jaune's attempts at conversation had gone over less than well in the past five minutes while they wandered the halls of Beacon aimlessly, but he was determined to remedy that. After all, it wasn't as though Ruby had been pointedly ignoring him—more that what he had said didn't exactly offer up more than a couple seconds' worth of conversation.
"I don't know," shrugged Ruby, features edged in silver as bright moonlight flooded through the windows in the corridor. "They might've stopped playing, since we're not there anymore…"
"We're the life of the party, all right," joked Jaune, and Ruby laughed the sweet little giggle that made him melt inside every time he heard it. Again, he was reminded of the fact that she was much younger than the rest of the students at Beacon—but hey, two years wasn't that big a deal, right?
"I bet Yang's set some sort of trap for us or something," Ruby was saying, and Jaune frowned worriedly, opening his mouth to ask if that was even allowed. Before he could continue, however, Ruby stumbled over nothing and Jaune automatically bent over to catch her, proud of his own quick reflexes.
"Are you okay?" he asked, concerned when she said nothing, but then discovered that Ruby was evidently preoccupied with staring with narrowed eyes at the ground beneath her feet. "I'll take that as a yes," he sighed, releasing Ruby (and blushing a little as he realized his arms had been around her slender waist).
"Yeah," said Ruby distantly, plainly lost in thought. "But that was a trip wire… We're going the right way!" she added more excitedly, and danced around a little before calming herself and standing still again (though her fingers still fidgeted as though wishing Crescent Rose was at her side).
"How do you get 'going the right way' from 'trip wire'?" asked Jaune suspiciously, glancing around to see if there were any other visible traps. Who knew an excursion to the ballroom would be so dangerous?
"Yang probably set it for us, knowing that we'd come this way!" exclaimed Ruby, and Jaune—as a door opened and closed in some nearby hallway—clapped a hand as gently as possible over Ruby's mouth, standing against the wall as motionlessly as possible (and absolutely certain that whoever was out in the corridor could hear his heartbeat). She may be adorable, but I don't want to get in trouble!
A few shaky moments passed without any complications, during which Jaune became painfully aware of the fact that his hand was touching Ruby's face—and that revelation, not surprisingly, did absolutely nothing to help his heart rate. He slid his hand down self-consciously, not wanting to make her uncomfortable with his continued method of silencing her, but oh my God his hand was touching her throat now. At that point, terrified of her reaction, he snatched the offending limb away again, lest he accidentally end up places he didn't really want to want to think about being, but couldn't help himself.
"Jaune. You okay?" whispered Ruby, glancing up anxiously into his eyes.
"Just fine!" he shot back, embarrassed, and knew that he looked anything but fine, even in the dim light. He probably looked as much a mess as ever, with his unruly hair and his beat-up armor and his torn sweatshirt and ripped jeans. I don't stand a chance, he thought mournfully as Ruby, rather than respond, gently tugged at his sweatshirt and pulled him away from the corridor—where heavy footsteps now might have approached them.
They broke into a clumsy run, darting around corners and laughing breathlessly as they went, trying to evade their possibly nonexistent pursuer. After a few aimless minutes of racing down the many halls of Beacon, Jaune was convinced that neither he nor Ruby actually had any idea whether they were being chased, and that they were each just following the other. More accurately, Jaune was scampering to keep up with the much quicker Ruby. But she's got her semblance on her side! I don't even know what mine is…
It occurred to Jaune that Ruby had stopped running and was turning around to say something, a sparkle in her silver eyes, but his body was moving much more quickly than his brain accounted for (as usual). As he skidded to a halt, desperately attempting to stop himself before he collided with his crush, he closed his eyes, painfully aware of what was about to happen—and resentful that this kind of thing only ever happened to him.
Ruby softened his fall with an adorable little sound somewhere between a yelp and a squeak, not unlike how Jaune imagined a wolf pup might sound. Unfortunately, being forced to use someone as precious as her as a cushion had been exactly what he had been dreading. After keeping his eyes squeezed shut for just one more humiliated moment, Jaune sighed and opened them, figuring he may as well get yelled at and have done with it.
At this rate, Ruby Rose would never even look at him again, let alone consider him potential boyfriend material. I'm such an idiot, he moaned internally, pushing himself off her semi-reluctantly (her chest might not have been as full as her sister's, but a part of Jaune that he preferred not to think about too much still thought it made a pretty good pillow).
"Um, Jaune?" Ruby asked timidly, splayed beneath him, as his gaze came up to meet hers. Her cheeks were rosier than usual in the moonlight, pooling on the ground where she lay, and Jaune—rather than let himself hope—decided it was because of the situation in which he had placed her. He staggered to his feet despairingly, taking in her full appearance; fortunately for all involved, her many red tulle underskirts still served their purpose, and Jaune let out his breath in relief, offering a hand to Ruby.
"What… was that about?" managed the girl, refusing to meet his eye and plainly flustered. "I mean… um… that was sort of…" Jaune raised his eyebrows, somewhat alarmed; he'd never seen Ruby this lost for words before.
"I'm sorry," sighed Jaune, scuffing his foot against the ground embarrassedly. "You're not hurt or anything, are you?" he added concernedly, examining her carefully (as much as he could in the moonlight): no, she seemed to be just fine, with the exception of her burning cheeks.
There was a moment of unsettled silence as their eyes met, ocean-blue and moon-silver, and Jaune wondered for a moment whether or not she felt the same way. Her blush hadn't disappeared yet, and there was an unfocused, distant quality to her eyes that seemed… dreamy. For a shivering second, Jaune debated moving his lips down to meet her kissable ones—she was a head shorter than him—but then she spoke, and shattered the moment. Seriously?
"N-no," stammered Ruby, breaking eye contact (and still scarlet); initially, Jaune thought she had read his mind and rejected him, but then remembered the last thing he had said had been a question and nodded distractedly. "Was there a trip wire or something?"
"Uh," responded Jaune, still mostly lost in wishful thinking, so Ruby smiled slightly and went to check for them herself. Berating himself silently with a thousand things he could have done differently, and resolving to be more assertive with how he felt in future, Jaune turned slowly to find Ruby grinning at him disquietingly.
"Um," said Jaune, trying in vain to frame a question.
"The floor's been greased," responded Ruby to his unspoken query, twirling in place in a distinctly Nora-esque way. "Yang must have been planning this for a long time," she added apprehensively. "I bet that's the ballroom!" she continued more excitedly, taking Jaune's hand and leading him towards a set of double doors at the end of the corridor.
She's holding hands with me! Jaune practically swooned, but his body decided it wouldn't be very manly of him and settled for turning completely red instead. Oh yes, much better. At least we can't see anything anyway.
"It's so dark," observed Ruby after opening the doors, coming to a stop (but still holding his hand for some reason). "I thought they had windows in here—!"
"They do, don't worry," responded a familiar voice boredly, and Jaune immediately pulled Ruby back into the doorway and stood in front of her, arms spread out. Cardin Winchester. The last thing he wanted was for her to get bullied; he'd endure it all over again for her sake if he had to. Nobody messes with Ruby Rose on my watch! Except Yang, apparently, he amended mentally.
One of the windows was opened abruptly, allowing broken moonlight to stream into the room. Cardin, evidently catching sight of Jaune's protective stance, chortled a little as he turned around from messing with the window, and Jaune backed up slightly, brushing against Ruby (and pretending he didn't feel her quick, warm little breaths on his back, in the interest of keeping it together).
"Relax. I'm not going to hurt your little girlfriend," chuckled Cardin, but stopped anyway, plainly remembering when Jaune had miraculously defeated the ursa threatening him. "Actually, Xiao Long planted me here. She said you'd—"
"Yang?" asked Ruby incredulously.
"Yeah. Your crazy sister." Cardin was clearly unwilling to say more, but Ruby moved Jaune's arm up like a drawbridge and stepped forward to face the former bully (having been gradually reformed, along with his team, by Nora Valkyrie—from what Jaune heard).
"My sister isn't crazy!" snapped Ruby defensively, prodding his breastplate.
"Her hair catches on fire if you make her angry!" retorted Cardin, backing up.
Ruby mouthed angrily at Cardin for a few seconds, then evidently decided he had a point and retreated to Jaune's side resentfully, where he tried to put his arm around her shoulders comfortingly—but misjudged the height and ended up with his arm around her waist instead (and was miraculously allowed to keep it there, to his euphoria).
"My point is that she told me you would be here and said I owed someone an apology," sighed Cardin, addressing his words to Jaune, "so I'd better come and deliver this note to her sister and apologize to you, or she'd kick my ass." He held out a scrap of paper, which Jaune took gingerly between two fingers with his unoccupied arm.
"But… I wasn't guaranteed to be here," frowned Jaune, remembering that Yang had dared Ruby to do it, and had only said that she was allowed to bring a single companion. Why would she assume I'd be the one Ruby picked?
"Hey, I'm only telling you what she said. She told me you'd be here, and I didn't exactly want to argue about it." Cardin shrugged, then made to leave the room; Jaune and Ruby stepped aside simultaneously, and the larger student walked by them, refusing to meet their eyes. After he exited the ballroom, however, he turned around once more, seemingly hesitant.
"By the way, I had nothing to do with whatever might be on that note," he said, a strangely rueful note to his voice. "I'm sorry, Jaune," he added awkwardly before making his way back to his room. The trip wire must have been to let him know we were on our way, reflected Jaune, handing the note to Ruby.
"What!" she squeaked indignantly, as she read the contents, and Jaune noticed once again that Ruby's face was as red as her namesakes. He debated sneaking a peek at the letter himself, but something held him back, and he waited patiently—albeit worriedly—for her to see fit to confide in him.
"They're going to set me up on a date with Cardin Winchester unless—" she growled eventually, cutting herself off and looking anywhere but at Jaune. He blinked, gently prying the note out of her hands (and encountering little resistance), and—angling it so the moonlight shone onto its surface—read the letter.
Dear little sister, If you don't tell Jaune what you think of him, we're going to set you up on a date with Cardin Winchester. Weiss, Blake, and Yang had all signed the note, though Yang had obviously been its primary author, and Jaune almost laughed for a moment before he realized the implications. No! Me?
"Uh, Ruby?" he asked nervously, trying to keep his considerably elevated heartbeat in his chest instead of his voice. "Is there… something you wanted to talk about, or…?"
"You weren't ever supposed to find out!" burst out Ruby, pummeling his chest lightly for a second before leaning against the door. "I'm the team leader. I can't let you distract me from being the best Huntress ever!" She glanced up desperately into Jaune's eyes for half a second, and his heart leapt, hearing only the unspoken truth that she liked him, she actually liked him in the same way he liked her!
You're already the best Huntress ever, because you tracked down my heart, Jaune debated saying, but decided Ruby would probably take a leaf out of her sister's book and punch him if he did.
"Ruby, I—" began Jaune, and debated falling silent and getting his thoughts in order, but decided rebelliously that no, he had kept quiet long enough. "I think you're the cutest girl I've ever met. And you're really brave and strong, and—um," he continued, stopping short as he realized Ruby was looking up at him with wide, unreadable eyes.
"Really?" asked Ruby in a hushed voice, plainly drinking in his words.
"O-of course," replied Jaune determinedly after a small pause, meeting her jubilant gaze with difficulty. Please don't tell me you just tricked me into saying that. "I mean, how can anyone think otherwise? How come your sister gets all the guys when you're so, um, you?"
"So me?" asked Ruby, sounding amused.
"Well… yeah!" exclaimed Jaune, jumping as Ruby's hand slipped into his. "That was supposed to be a compliment," he mumbled, hanging his head. "I'm really bad at this. Sorry. I've just… never had a girlfriend, and…" He trailed off, not wanting to discuss the matter—just one of innumerable failures in his life before meeting Ruby.
"Well, I've never had a boyfriend," shrugged Ruby, looking somewhat solemn, but then positively beamed up at Jaune—her smile was just as brilliant as the moon, as far as he was concerned—and squeezed his hand with undisguised affection. "I guess we'll just have to learn how together!"
"O-okay," was Jaune's only, lame response to her heartfelt suggestion, and he frantically tried to think of things to do to spice up his acceptance and display his bliss (currently masked by shock on the outside). He could give her that terrible pickup li—no. He was already holding hands with her, as they stood together awkwardly in the doorway of the ballroom. He could… he could… oh.
Jaune bit his lip, inhibitions getting in his way once more, before swatting them away like flies and leaning down, completely unsure of how exactly kisses were supposed to work when he was a full head taller than Ruby. As he closed his eyes, praying she wouldn't think he was being too forward (since he had no frame of reference), Ruby stood on her tiptoes and met his lips eagerly, chastely, and touched his nose lightly with hers a moment later. As she lowered herself back to her natural height, Jaune half-pretended to swoon, and the two of them leaned against the door, laughing as quietly as possible until they were breathless.
"Truth or dare?" giggled Ruby, and only then did Jaune remember that they had never declared the game over—and, now that she had fufilled her dare, she could ask the Question of Jaune.
"Dare," he decided, grinning at his new girlfriend—that sounds so weird, he thought happily, but… right, somehow. Like it was always meant to be. As Ruby thought of a suitable challenge, Jaune relished all the possibilities, and turned red at the thought of being dared to kiss her again, or any number of other things that weren't so off-limits for him to think of anymore.
"Carry me back to the room," snickered Ruby.
And as Jaune bent down to let her clamber onto his back, sharply aware of the texture of her tights on his hands and the pressure of her chin on his shoulder and the sound of her breath in his ear and the way her arms draped around his neck, he thought (surprised, as he started the trek back, that he didn't swoon for real) that maybe—just maybe—this was the best part of coming to Beacon.
((Here you are, Shiranai Atsune, and apologies for the delay… I hope this was good enough!
Happy New Year, all you fellow Jaune/Ruby shippers!))