A/N: This is for AgentOklahoma, who prompted me with a romantic meeting in Forever Fall. Ehm, it's a little dark for a second in the beginning there, so, sorry about that. Way I see it, even if these two morons did get together, Cardin wouldn't magically turn into a saint. He's a rich-boy, through and through, and used to getting what he wants. If he wants Jaune, then it makes sense that he would have a few nasty impulses to quash every now and again... Don't judge me. Enjoy!
Jogging into the clearing, Cardin paused at the sight that met him—a red-and-white checkered blanket spread out on the ground with a picnic basket and a morose-looking blonde sitting on top of it. All at once, something in him balked at the… domesticity of the scene, and a very prominent part of Cardin, the part that had been raised by a harsh father and three unforgiving brothers, growled. It wanted him to go over to the smaller boy, push him down, and take what he wanted.
It hissed that he shouldn't have to go through all the trouble of placating the blonde sitting there—arms wrapped around his legs and chin resting on his knees—when Cardin was bigger, stronger, and wanted him. For a brief moment, the orange-haired boy froze, dark parts of his mind eagerly providing heady images of pinning his Jauney Boy down and finally tasting him, touching him, hearing him whimper and moan, absolutely fucking beautiful…
And then Jaune caught sight of him standing among the crimson trees of Forever Fall, and the blonde's forlorn expression morphed into one of delight, though he clearly tried to tone it down. It was enough to snap the other boy out of that kind of thinking—if Cardin did any of those things, betrayed Jaune's trust and hurt him like that, he'd lose that smile, that cautious happiness in those bright blue eyes when the larger boy did something that he liked. Approval wasn't something that the youngest Winchester was used to, but he'd learned to crave it from JNPR's leader in the short time they'd been together, and the thought of losing it turned his stomach.
The boys stared at each other for a few seconds, then blushed when they realized what they were doing, Cardin rubbing the back of his neck as he quickly walked over to the blanket and Jaune busying himself with the basket of food. "You, uh," the blonde began as Cardin sat down, before clearing his throat and trying again. "You look nice."
Wrenching his indigo eyes away from the blush that spread from Jaune's face down his neck, Cardin tugged at the crisp black T-shirt he hadn't wanted to wear. It was too small, stretching tightly across his chest, but Lark had vehemently insisted and bullied him into it. (And, if he never heard his teammate describe his arms as "edible" again, it would be far too soon.)
"Oh, um, thanks," Cardin replied, a little awkward himself. "I was just gonna wear my uniform, but Lark kind of… ambushed me on my way out and made me change. That's why I'm late, acutally—the guys decided that they all needed to 'help' me."
Jaune paused in removing the sandwiches from the basket, his mouth hanging open. "You told them?" he squeaked, voice shooting through several octaves, and his companion winced.
"No," Cardin defended himself irritably, not willing to shoulder the blame for this latest cock-up. He quickly lost the tone, though, when bright blue eyes glared at him fiercely. "… It turns out they, um, that they already knew."
The last part was practically inaudible, so it took Jaune a few moments to figure it out. When he did, his face turned ashen, and the orange-haired boy frowned. Sure they had decided not to tell anyone about their… whatever it was they had—relationship? Did they have a relationship now?—but that was mostly for the sake of convenience; RWBY and the rest of JNPR didn't exactly approve of Cardin (though, he secretly thought that meant they didn't really trust Jaune's judgment), so they wanted to figure everything out, get settled, before his friends started interfering.
As for CRDL, though, the two boys hadn't really discussed it, merely had an unspoken agreement that there was no point in telling the rest of Cardin's team. But, apparently, that was completely unnecessary. "It's fine!" he rushed to reassure the blonde. "They said they figured it out pretty fast, but decided not to say anything until we did."
Jaune's breathing was starting to freak the larger boy out, bordering as it was on hyperventilation, and he wracked his brains for something that would calm his boyfriend(?) down. "They're cool with it, though," he tried a little desperately. "They said they like you. And they approve. And they won't tell anyone. And they like you."
"You already said that," Jaune pointed out, but he seemed to be calming down and grabbed a bottle of water from the basket.
Cardin nodded and cautiously grabbed a bottle of his own. "I know," he said after taking a drink, "but Lark was really adamant about that part. Honestly, I think he likes you a little too much."
That got a laugh from the smaller boy, and he went back to unpacking the food. Sandwiches, chips, soda cans, water bottles—basically the same fare they could get at school, but with infinitely better company.
"You think I'm kidding," Cardin warned, smirking despite his best efforts, "but don't be surprised if he walks up to you one day and says that he's available if you ever get tired of my 'emotionally-stunted bullshit'."
Jaune spluttered for a moment, face going completely red again, but he didn't deign to reply to (what he considered to be) such a ridiculous statement. His companion's smirk widened, and Cardin began to unwrap his sandwich. "Of course, even he thinks it's totally gay that we're having a picnic in the same place where I"—fell the fuck in love with your dumb ass—"figured out that you're kinda hot when you wanna be. And, I gotta say, he's not wrong. People who do this type of sappy, romantic crap are total losers that desperately want to impress the person they're with."
The blonde fixed him with an incredulous (and slightly offended) look and—mouth full of ham and cheese and potato chips—almost yelled, "Hey, this was your idea!"
Cardin just grinned and calmly sipped his soda as he watched the other boy think about it. A few seconds later—when Jaune realized what he had essentially just said—the larger boy was tackled to the ground by a very enthusiastic blonde and treated to a very enthusiastic kiss. When they came up for air, several minutes later, they continued their stupid, sappy picnic and Cardin refused to let his boyfriend (definitely his boyfriend) move from his lap, spending more time pressing stupid, sappy kisses to Jaune's neck and face and hair than he spent eating.