A/N: So…CF and I have been chatting over the last month or so, largely about The Knight of Lancaster, or Something. I've been toying with the idea of writing it in long form, but finals, combined with how much I already have to write for myself, combined with the fact that anyone who would be interested in it has likely already read the outline, and would therefore have no reason to read my take, these all combined to dissuade me from that.
But, as we were chatting, he talked about pivot points, moments where things could've gone differently, for better, for worse, for steamier…
This is set at the end of the latest chapter (65, as of the time of writing), as Ruby and Jaune are discussing their feelings. The first kiss moment was one so pivotal that I decided to go back a little further than was strictly necessary.
By the way, if it isn't already apparent, you really need to go read Knight of Lancaster before you go over this. This won't make any sense otherwise.
"You really don't play fair, Jaune."
He laughed a little at that, and brought up a finger to wipe away the tears that had escaped captivity at her lashes. "Guilty as charged," he said. "'Honorable' isn't 'nice', but I am a gracious lord." She laughed at that, and swatted playfully up at his chest as he hung above her on the couch.
"Oh, so generous," she said, before fluttering her lashes as she'd seen Octavia do. "Glad to see you're not totally without compassion."
He chuckled again, before his thumb trailed down her cheek and rested on her lips, keeping her from speaking. She technically could have talked, if she wanted to. She just didn't want to.
"If you can do this for me, Ruby, if you can promise to love me until we're finished with this. I can do one more thing for you," he said, kneeling down so that they were a little closer together, until he was almost sitting in her lap. "I can give you one more thing, that I hadn't dared to give yet, an advantage not even Pyrrha can claim."
She laughed, trying to distract herself from how close he was, how nice he smelled, how deep his eyes seemed to go, but she also laughed at the roller coaster of emotion that had been today, and at the absurdity of the situation, and what Jaune was saying.
When she found she couldn't distract herself from Jaune's intense gaze, she closed her eyes and commented sarcastically, "What could you offer now that you didn't before when you were trying to help? A secret weapon? A magic spell? A-"
Something warm, soft, and impossible pressed against her lips.
Ruby's eyes shot open in shock, only to meet the bridge of Jaune's nose and closed eyes. Their top lips were only barely touching, and she gasped, sucking in an undignified and huge gulp of air. She thought she'd been prepared before, she'd been ready to go much further than this, but this was still so impossible, this couldn't be happening.
She froze as Jaune's free hand clasped her other cheek and pulled her close, his bottom lip meeting her own.
Ruby's lips felt like they would go numb, they were tingling that much. It's like Jaune was electrocuting her with his mouth. Wait, that sounded like it was a bad thing, and judging from how she felt right now, it was a very good thing. Her jaw unclenched, her fists unballed, her knees went slack, and her eyes closed again. Her mouth opened briefly before closing again, pushing her lips together and against Jaune's own.
One hand rose, before gliding along Jaune's shoulder, up his neck. She played with the hair at the back of his head; it was so soft. But then, right now, everything she could feel of Jaune was soft.
His lips tasted like cherries— No! Strawberries, but the really sweet kind, that you pick in late August, so red they make your mouth water, so sweet they make your teeth ache, so plump they're almost ready to fall off the vine themselves.
She tugged on his hair, pushing his mouth further against his own, and her lips part before pushing back together and into Jaune again, perfectly in sync with his lips. She wanted to taste more of him, and she shivered in delight as one of the hands covering her cheek glided down to gently press at her neck.
Ruby felt like she was floating out in space, with nothing but Jaune's lips, Jaune's hair, Jaune's taste, Jaune's smell, Jaune's skin, Jaune, Jaune, Jaune… Remnant to Ruby, Remnant to Ruby…but Ruby liked it here, out in space.
It was an eternity over too soon, when Jaune finally pulled up and away, and she found her mouth following his. She let out an unconscious, unlady-like grunt of disapproval before her eyes drifted open.
Jaune was grinning above her, but he was breathing heavily, and she just realized how out of breath she was too. Jeez, she might have almost really gone to space. She thought his red cheeks looked cute thou- Wait! Were her cheeks red?! Was she embarrassed!
"That was my first kiss," he said quietly, his eyes refusing to look at her, instead finding something to occupy them with in the darkened leader lounge. Ruby was too out of breath to mind losing (would it be winning?) her own first kiss. His first kiss…now hers, and something Pyrrha would never have. Ruby had always had his support, and for the past week she'd thought she had his favor, but now…?
"Still want to give up, Ruby?" Jaune's words pulled her from her own mind, and she looked up at him, his bright teeth shining in the darkness. She could tell his aura was active too, just a bit, his skin carrying a soft, glowing sheen.
If she had wanted to give up, for some fuzzy idea of it being for her own good, that little angel on her shoulder just had its butt kicked hard. Jaune had already made her feel better, undone the cancerous little knot in her stomach, but now she felt better than she'd ever thought possible. In fact, Ruby's heart seemed to be constantly looking for new records to break, because right now she was pretty sure she was going to bruise a rib.
She giggled impishly up at him and bit at her lip. "Maybe…but maybe I need another one. Just to be sure?"
Jaune grinned, a coy (or cocky? He made both of them look dang good) smirk coming across his face. "Sorry Rubes— my next kiss is for winners. You'll have to earn it if you want the next one."
And boy did she. She wanted the sensation that still lingered, the blood rushing through her head, the heady feeling was glorious. If Ruby was on the cusp of giving up earlier, she had more than enough motivation to keep going now—enough to take on the whole world, Pyrrha included.
And maybe that was the point. Maybe this secret, intangible thing was the advantage Jaune was talking about: the advantage of will, of wanting it more, and knowing Jaune wanted it too.
The corners of her mouth turned up, almost by themselves. How could she give up now? How could she fail to give Jaune anything less than her best? Go out in anything other than a blaze of glory? All the pains and heartbreak that lay ahead…they were worth it. He was worth it. She could never deny that now.
The image of a rose flashed in her mind, blooming in brilliance, and Ruby's eyes and aura lit with a familiar glow before she exploded in a flash of aura and movement.
Jaune cried out softly as he fell, Ruby pushing him back with a surprising force, sweeping him off his knees in barely a moment.
It was sudden, but harmless as Jaune fell onto his back on the other side of the couch. Jaune laughed, but his laugh fell as Ruby turned and began to crawl up the couch towards him. Her eyes were shining, glowing a faint silver in the aura, and her aura was a simmering heat to match Jaune's own, but that was nothing compared to the look on her face.
Her bow lips were curled into a playful (or was it predatory?) little smile, and she spoke as her arms came to rest on either side of Jaune's hips, "You know, Jaune, I'm already kinda a winner. I won two matches, and dedicated them to you, and everything. Does that count?"
Jaune laughed again, a sound that was growing familiar in the best possible way. "That's good, Rubes…but two wins alone aren't quite enough for my second kiss."
Ruby's lips turned down in a pout, but her eyes maintained that hungry gleam as she fully situated herself above him, her bangs hanging down and tickling at the sides of his face. "Well…if you won't give me your second kiss now…maybe I can return your first? And then you can give it back to me?"
Jaune laughed at her audacity, but his smile fell lightly as Ruby still stared at him. He didn't push her away, and they both knew he could. His line of sight kept flicking between her eyes and her lips, as if he wasn't sure which would pounce first.
Ruby bent her elbows, lowering herself down, her cape draping across the two of them. Her mouth was getting closer…closer…she made sure he had time to voice a complaint, to tell her to stop, but he didn't really seem to mind all that much. She was fully lying on him now, with their lips so close together that they gently touched every time they breathed. Jaune had every opportunity to tell her to stop, to back out, to push her away. If he was adamant about saving his second kiss, he wasn't doing a very good job.
Ruby pressed their mouths fully together, breathing heavily through her nose when Jaune's hands wrapped around her sides, one at her lower back, just above her hips, the other pressing between her shoulder blades. She raised her hands, clasping either side of Jaune's neck as they kissed again, and again, their lips pushing together, opening up, then back together. That same heady feeling was wriggling back into her mind, her thoughts growing foggy as Jaune's tongue slipped into her mouth.
The next time she opened her mouth, it stayed open, and his tongue probed her, tracing behind her teeth before deciding it liked her tongue a little better. It was a soft game of chase, with Jaune's tongue hunting her own before pinning it down. Then her tongue slid away, and the chase began again. The next time his tongue touched hers, she pushed it back, forcing it to retreat into his own mouth, and this time it was her turn to explore. She traced his teeth just as he had done before starting her own game of cat and mouse, but when she found his tongue, his lips closed around her and he inhaled, a noisy sucking sound meeting her eyes.
Ruby moaned and suddenly realized just how loud they were being, how loud she was being. She pulled her tongue away, only now feeling how much of their shared spit coated the outside of her mouth, and his. She leaned up, fully pulling away from him. "Sorry, I shouldn't be so noi-"
Any protest or excuse she might have made was lost as Jaune lunged upward and claimed her lips, fulling sitting up with Ruby in his lap. She shifted her legs so that they crossed behind his back, wrapping one arm around his broad shoulders, the other tangling in the hair she'd never realized she loved so much. She was a little higher than him now, and his ardent kisses were soon below her lips, trailing down her chin.
She craned her neck upward, squeaking at each new wet kiss was placed on the pale skin of her throat. Jaune hadn't proceeded very far until he came to her high lace collar, and he growled in frustration, the rumbling vibrations sending delightful bolts of pleasure to places that were not very lady-like to talk about. She reached back and grasped at his hands, guiding them only her back until the came to the top of her back and the head of the zipper that was normally covered by her cape. Her owns hands left his and fumbled with the clasps at her collarbone, unhooking her cape and tossing it back onto the couch behind them. Jaune's hands had quickly dragged the zipper down, the elastic corset expanding easily and pulling away from her front. One of Jaune's greedy hands scrunched up the front of her top, exposing her skin all the way to the collarbone, and she gasped lightly at the relatively chill air she was suddenly exposed to. Her gasps grew throatier as Jaune lips and tongue picked up where they'd left off, leaving wet little circles down her neck until the came to the juncture of her shoulder.
"Ungh, yes!" she squeaked, her hand fisting into the back of his hand, pressing his touch further into her.
She was so focused on his lips that she wasn't really paying attention to what her own body was doing, until she felt Jaune groan something that might have been "Ruby" into the skin of her throat. But when his call dragged her from her foggy thoughts, she realized just what she'd been doing with her…well, her butt. The many nylon layers of her combat skirt did a lot to cushion the space between them, even to separate them, but those layer had bunched up, pushed between his stomach and hers, and right now she could feel something hot and hard burning at her core, with nothing separating them but Jaune's jeans, her tights, and a few pairs of underwear. She'd been…grinding, into it.
Jaune's lips had stopped entirely in their attention. "Ruby? Did I do something— unnngh~" His question turning into a loud moan of ecstasy as Ruby lurched her hips forward and down, and she couldn't contain her own gasp as lightning coursed through her core. He seemed determined to outdo her, for one of his hands slid down her back, under her combat skirt and grabbed at the pliant flesh of her tight-clad butt. She squealed into the open air, before clapping a hand to her mouth to keep from making any additional noises. She was still grinding against him, but now it was like Jaune was holding her in one hand, dragging her hips against what she could feel of his length.
As if that somehow weren't enough, he kept licking and kissing and suckling at the same patch of downy soft skin on her neck, driving her slowly further into blissful insanity. Jaune's right hand was kneading into her rear, the other holding her upright so he could worship her neck as Ruby was left to pant and gasp and squeak. A little of spittle dribbling down her neck and down toward her chest, causing her whole body to shake in anticipation.
Without any warning, Jaune's teeth sunk into her skin, and he bit down, hard, his tongue lapping at the patch of skin he now had clenched between his teeth. "Hnnnnnnggggh~!" Ruby's keening cry grow in volume until she was sure that it would shake the windows and somehow start Beacon's alarms.
Finally, Jaune released her, kissing and licking appreciatively at the purple bruise that was blooming beneath his lips. Something seem to penetrate through his cloud of lust, and his eyes widened, before looking apologetically up at her. "Ruby, oh my god, I'm so sorry, I don't know what-"
She threw her arms around his neck, doing her best to reach down his throat with her tongue, and Jaune groaned appreciatively as her hip-grinding resumed. Their lips parted, Ruby's heaving breaths treacherously preventing her from continuing her new favorite activity, and Jaune resumed his worship of her neck, except…his lips were drifting lower.
Her collarbone, her sternum, it wasn't until his lips brushed against the top lip of her bra that she realized that she wasn't stopping him, that she realized just where he was intending to go. "Wait!" she cried, hands clasping his shoulders.
Wait he did, his face pulling out of her rumpled top to gaze up at her with miniature curious oceans. "Hm?"
"I think we, uh…we should stop." She felt a little weird saying it, though she wasn't sure if that was out of embarrassment for how far they'd gone, or a burning desire to keep going.
"Did I do something wrong?" His gaze didn't look hurt or offended, but he did seem a little worried.
"No! Gosh, no, this has been— Wow, like, I don't think I could— You're great, this is great, are you sure this was your first kiss? Cause you're like, really good at it." She was babbling, she knew she was babbling, and yet she couldn't stop herself, her anxiety growing in the place her ugly little knot had only recently vacated.
He kissed her, softly and sweetly, with not half as much needy hunger as he'd been about to kiss her…well, you know. "It's okay. If you wanna stop, we can. …are you sure you wanna stop?"
Ruby laughed nervously and embraced him, her cheek resting easily against his, her arms and legs wrapped around him entirely. "No," she confessed quietly. "I don't think I wanna stop."
"Then why—?"
"Because if we don't stop now I'm not sure that I could stop us doing from something we really regret." His shoulders seemed to tense in her arms, and they did so even more when she said, "I don't want to break any promises."
"Ruby, I told you—!"
She interrupted him for what felt like the millionth time today, "I told you, okay? I'm not gonna, like…stop talking to you. I won't let my promise with Pyrrha get in the way like that." She pulled away from his embrace, but Jaune refused to meet her gaze, his furrowed brow pointed off into the lonely dark. She raised one hand and caressed his cheek, lifting his chin until he was looking at her. "I'll keep my promise. I'll love you. I don't think I could ever stop, but I won't even try until after this is over with."
His forehead unknit, but his eyes still looked worried, and she thought he might try to kiss her, to distract her from her obligations, so she quickly spoke again, "But you're getting married, Jaune…if we don't stop now, I don't know what I…" She trailed off, shrugging helplessly.
Jaune leaned forward to embrace her, and she leaned into his warm touch, reveling in the stubble that scraped at her cheek. "I get it, I think."
"Thank you," she whispered quietly, and she squeezed his shoulders just as she felt him squeeze her back.
They waited a long time like that, wrapped around each other in the dark. Until Jaune asked, "Are you okay?"
She nodded against his neck, "Yeah, I'm okay." He squeezed her again, and she grunted in mock pain, enjoying the way his chest rumbled against her as he laughed. He reached up and gently pushed on her shoulders, and she leaned away, curious silver eyes meeting mirthful blue.
"We've kinda been here a while. I should check in with someone so people know I haven't been assassina- ow!"
Ruby punched his shoulder hard. "That's not funny!"
"Ouch, okay, okay!" Jaune scooped her lightly onto the couch before standing, rubbing at his shoulder where she'd hit him. He stepped quietly to the door, before turning back and smiling softly at her.
She beamed at him in return, whispering just loud enough for him to hear, "I love you."
His smile broadened, and he answered, "I know," before he opening the door and leaving.
She sighed dreamily, in the way she hadn't for several days. She felt like she could remember the feel of him against her lips, his teeth on her neck, his tongue near her— Ruby bolted to her feet in sudden realization. Jaune had unzipped her top, which was now flopping forward toward the floor, exposing her bra to the all the world. She frantically picked up the draping top and pressed it against her chest. The only way to fix it was to zip it up in the back…which she couldn't reach. Curse her short arms! She had to get back to the dorm, maybe Yang wou— No! Maybe Blake would zip her up without asking questions.
The journey back to her room was utter heck. She hadn't bothered to refasten the cloak to her collar, instead walking with it draped across her shoulders and neck to prevent her top from falling off. She'd manically grinned and waved at anyone who came too close, praying they'd go away so she could keep shuffling.
She finally arrived at her dorm, slamming the door shut behind her, only to freeze as she opened her eyes to reveal…her entire team.
Yang looked down up at her from where she'd been playing with her scroll on her bed, "Oh hey Rubes, how did the talk wi— what's wrong with your clothes."
Ruby keened in pure terror, shrugging her shoulders helplessly. Unfortunately, that movement convinced her clothes that now was the perfect moment to betray her, her top and cloak falling forward before she could grab it and clutch it to her chest.
"Oh my god, is that a hickey?!"
"Yang noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"
A/N: Now you know…what it's like to live in my brain. The chapter is obviously short, but I'm frankly exhausted after writing that in one sitting. This is the most writing I've done in…weeks, really. I haven't done anything creative aside from the occasional paper and brainstorming on the Discord server I run (which you should totally ask me for an invite to, btw). My commission clients are gonna kill me… (Don't worry, I'm not charing any of them at this point. Six months is far too long to wait.)
Leave a review, let me know what you think, and please, if you haven't already: go check out Knight of Lancaster, it is criminally underappreciated. I'll see you all later. Toodle pip.