Jaune paced back and forth in front of the door to team RWBY's room in Atlas Academy's dormitory, trying to work up his courage. His face was already burning in embarrassment and the butterflies in his stomach were sure to burst their way out with how intense they were fluttering.

Chill out. She'll love it, you know she will. You'll get a laugh and then you can hang out until lunch. Win-win.

He stopped at her door, took a deep breath, raised his hand to knock, and nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard laughter coming down the hallway. He scrambled to the side and leaned against the wall, trying his hardest to look natural. He was fumbling for his scroll when they reached him, a group of seniors geared for a mission by the look of it. The girl leading the pack gave him a long sideways look, eyebrow raised. Jaune chuckled nervously, hand instinctively going to the back of his neck. He recognized her, both from the sparring classes Ironwood insisted their teams participate in and the leadership classes he and Ruby sat in on.

She nodded politely as she passed and her team continued down the hall, eventually disappearing around a corner. Jaune slumped against the wall in relief, letting out a long sigh. Just do it already, he urged himself. All of Beacon knew you were a clown, Atlas will figure it out eventually too.

Jaune squared himself in front of RWBY's door again, running his hands down his front, smoothing out wrinkles that weren't there. He raised his hand again but paused. Maybe he should have messaged her first, make sure she was even in her room. Or, maybe more importantly, make sure her team wasn't.

He shook his head. He didn't want to ruin the surprise. Besides, her team had been unexpectedly busy since reaching Atlas. Weiss was gone constantly due to her family. Yang and Blake were always off somewhere together, usually in town. And if they were around it wouldn't matter much. They'd seen him do more embarrassing things than this.

Jaune had recently realized that it was surprisingly easy to make a fool of himself if it could get a smile out of Ruby.

Jaune was pretty proud of the song he had come up with. He had gone to a movie the previous weekend with Ren, Nora, and Ruby, an animated feature full of songs. Ruby loved it, making jokes and scheming about how she could tease her partner about the two lead characters' similarity to her and Winter.

When they returned to the dorm, Yang had beaten Ruby to the punch by asking them how their double date went. Both he and Ruby went red at that, spluttering denials. Yang laughed, Nora laughed harder, and Jaune couldn't look Ruby in the eye for three days after. The memory caused the heat in his face to redouble and the butterflies in his stomach to turn into lancers.

Jaune slapped his cheeks and hopped in place. Go time, Arc. Man up. He looked up and down the hall, finding it empty. Now or never.

He cleared his throat and brought his face close to the doorjamb. "Ruby?" he asked in falsetto, channeling the girl from the movie. He raised his fist.

Knock knock knock-knock knock!

"Do you wanna build a snow grimm?"

"Stop hanging out with Weisssss"

"I just walked in on Nora and Ren"

"Saw their rear ends"

"I need to bleach my eeeeyyyyyeeeesssss"

"She had him in a-"

He was cut off by the door opening and was met with, to his horror, the monstrous grin of Yang Xiao Long. Jaune's face felt like it was about to burst into flame.

"Caught your teammates doing the dirty, huh? I've always wondered – who's the top?" Yang asked, eyes sparkling. "Nora's Nora, but it's the quiet ones you have to watch out for."

Jaune shuddered. It had been a while since he had accidentally stumbled in on Ren and Nora (they had worked out strict rules and warning signs to avoid it ever happening again) but he didn't relish the mental image that was still burned into his brain.

"No Ruby?" he asked in attempt to change the subject, trying to look past Yang into the room.

"Stop hanging out with Weiss?" he heard Weiss peevishly repeat from somewhere out of sight. He chucked nervously at that.

"Hey Jaune." Blake this time. "Ruby's-"

"In the bathroom!" Yang interjected loudly, before conspiratorially lowering her voice to a whisper. "You wait outside and I'll kick the door when she's out, okay?" She winked and gave him a thumbs up.

Jaune returned the thumbs up and let Yang ease the door shut. Yang seemed to encourage him and Ruby hanging out even more than usual lately. He always assumed she'd be the overprotective type, but there really was no better wingman than Yang Xiao Long. As long as you were prepared for the teasing that came after, anyway.

Jaune straightened up and waited for the signal. Now that Ruby's team had heard his little song, he found his nervousness receding and confidence growing. He had gotten the nerves out. Ruby would get an even better rendition of his silly little song.

"You're evil."

The bathroom was empty. Ruby had left half an hour ago to work on Crescent Rose.

"Shhh!" Yang shushed Blake as she made her way to nightstand to retrieve her scroll. "This is too good to pass up."

Weiss rolled her eyes. "Ruby's going to be upset. She really would have enjoyed that dolt's song," punctuating the word with air quotes. "You'll shame him out of ever doing it again."

Yang brought up the recorder function on her scroll as she approached the door. "Don't worry, she's going to hear it." Yang was going to send it right to her. And Nora. And Neon. And, knowing Neon, probably the entire school.

She centered the camera on the door, hit record, and gave the door two light kicks.

Jaune cleared his throat on the other side of the door and began the song that would make him the joke of the academy for the next two months.

It did make Ruby laugh though.