Wow. All I have to say is that I really don't have a valid excuse for not posting anything for a long time. Sorry if you guys are waiting for anything new with Connections, but I really stalled on that as I didn't really have a plot... I'm the best at writing shorter pieces with fluff or stuff. Anyways, I might explore in this concept some more but I don't have any plans, so if someone wants to send me a prompt, that'd be awesome.
Thanks for reading, if you liked it, drop it a follow and if you really liked it, give it a favorite!
Court
Jaune rolled out of bed, cursing his buzzing coin as it vibrated in the front pocket of his flannel sleep shirt. He pulled it out and looked at the galleon replica, squinting at the words that replaced the serial number.
Come to library.
He blearily pulled out his cloak and draped it over himself, taking care to not wake up Ren. His feet slightly stung on the cool floor, prompting him to get out a pair of woolen socks and pull them on as he sat on the edge of his bed. He slipped his slippers on and shuffled quietly out of the room, lightening his footfalls as Ren stirred on his bed. He paused, backtracking to pick up his wand off his bed stand, gripping it lightly in his right hand and securing his cloak with his left. He descended the stairs of the boys' dormitories, his elbow grazing the railing slightly, steadying the groggy boy. He walked into the common room, the fire glow the only light in the room, casting shadows on the opposite wall that flickered with the flames.
He swung the portrait open, pausing to pull up his hood, before stepping out into the hallway. He heard the Fat Lady whisper at him, "You should be in bed, Mister Arc.".
He shrugged and kept walking towards the library, listening carefully for Filch or his cat since Yang was currently borrowing both the Marauders' Map and his invisibility cloak that he got from Ebony, after she graduated a year and a half ago. A brief scuffling startled him and he ducked into the nearest alcove, wedging himself in the small space behind the large vase as he whispered a disillusionment charm over himself. The feeling of a bucket of water dumped over his head told him that it worked. The scuffling got closer as he started to hear sounds of a struggle. Soon, a familiar figure came into his sight, dragging a protesting girl behind her. He breathed a sigh of release as he recognized the sisterly shenanigans of Yang and Ruby.
He quickly stepped out and cancelled the disillusionment, earning a quick right jab into his nose from Yang. He bent over, clutching the bleeding nose with his left hand, letting his cloak slip off him to land in a pool of cloth on the floor.
"Christ, Yang!" He whisper yelled at the girl who was scrambling to pull out her wand. She repaired the damage with a quick "Episkey!", and vanished the blood with a quick jab of her wand. Ruby giggled at the sudden fluster from her normally easy-going sister, earning a sharp glare from the blonde as she pulled Jaune up from the ground. She turned back to the boy who was tenderly prodding his nose with his wand, making sure everything was in place, and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Sorry, you okay?" She asked as he looked at his nose, giving an amusing sight of the boy slightly cross-eyed, causing Yang chuckle lightly. His eyes focused on hers, the slight astonishment obvious as he nodded, clearly impressed with Yang's quick spell work.
"Yeah. What're you guys doing up so late?" Yang shot a glance and pointed her thumb at the sulking girl behind her.
"I saw Ruby in the kitchens, so I went and busted her. Did not want Weiss-y to catch her out late again. She was nice enough to give her a warning the first time, but I don't want Ruby to get detention when she should be studying for her Transfiguration test coming up." Yang grabbed Ruby and put her in a headlock, ruffling her hair affectionately. "What about you? I don't think you came to get sucker punched by me." Jaune shrugged and pulled out his coin, showing the message to Yang.
"This woke me up, and I thought I'd go since I won't be able to fall asleep super easy. Weiss or Blake probably just need help with the Ancient Runes project." He stooped to pick up his cloak off the ground and held it out to Yang, who was hugging herself.
"This is probably a bit warmer than my cloak. Switch me?" Yang took the cloak, pulled out Jaune's invisibility cloak, and handed it to him.
They had come up with a way to talk about the cloak and the map around people who did not know about them by being vague about it and hoping that it seemed like they were just talking about normal things. Ruby was the only person of their group they hadn't told about them, since she was only a third year, but they were going to tell her about them when she became a fourth year since that was when Ebony gave them the cloak and the map.
Jaune could feel the map tucked safely within the cloak when he took it, briefly brushing hands with Yang and sharing a smile with her. With a wave and a quick hug, they parted ways, Yang taking her little sister back to the Gryffindor common room.
When he was sure that they were both out of sight, Jaune threw the cloak over himself and pulled out the map, which had yet to be cancelled, so he quickly found Filtch on the second floor, Mrs. Norris on the first and Snape prowling the dungeons. From what he could tell, the way to the library was open and relatively danger free, except for Peeves who was floating in front of a wall on the other side of the first floor from Mrs. Norris, just in front of the library. Jaune watched as the two dots labelled Yang Xaio Long and Ruby Rose entered the Gryffindor common room and found the dots belonging to both Blake Belladonna and Weiss Schnee in the library, sitting at a table. He pocketed the map and set off to join the girls in the library.
When he finally got into the library after a narrow escape with Mrs. Norris when he tripped on one of the cracks between the stones on the floor, he found both Blake and Weiss nodding off at their table. Weiss' head was resting on the fifth year Ancient Runes textbook while Blake was slumped backwards in her chair, occasionally opening her eyes, only for them to fall shut again. He slowly approached the girls, sitting down at the third open seat at the table. He took the cloak and draped it over Weiss as best as he could from where he was, making it look like everything but her hair, which was down from its usual lopsided ponytail, was gone. The action startled the raven-haired girl across from him; causing her to look at him blearily, rubbing her eye with her off hand.
"Jaune?" Blake mumbled. The noise woke the already stirring heiress who looked up with an equally bleary expression. She said something that Jaune did not catch and slumped down on the book again. Jaune smiled at Weiss' actions and pulled the parchment that she had been writing on towards him. He briefly read over the project description that she was working on; a stone imbued with a healing spell that would fix scratches and bruises when held over the affected area, and slowly tucked it into her bag. He focused back on Blake who was slowly putting her books and runes set away in her bag, yawning as she did so.
"You two are up late." It was more of a question than a statement. Blake looked up from stoppering her bottle of ink. She shrugged and glanced at Weiss, gesturing at her project. Jaune let out a small sigh at the sight of the girl.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry." The apology from the muggle-born earned a sad smile from the boy. He finished packing Weiss' stuff in her bag and slung it over his shoulder. He picked up the dainty girl carefully and rested her head on his shoulder, one arm holding her legs near the knee and the other around her middle back. The girl let out a soft snore and nestled her head into the crook of his neck, earning a blush from the boy as he felt her small breaths on his neck. He looked at Blake after he made sure that Weiss was properly asleep.
"It's just that, I've liked her for as long as I can remember. Since the first time we all played Quidditch together. But her choosing Neptune over me… It hurts. Still does."
Jaune's parents had all of his friends over the previous summer, even Blake, who was a muggle-born. However, Pyrrha brought her friends from Beauxbatons, Sun, Neptune, Sage and Scarlet, as well. They got along really well, despite going to different schools. But over the summer, the growing interest between Jaune and Weiss came to a screeching halt when the heiress and Neptune suddenly became an item. They still wrote each other, three months into the new school year.
Jaune gestured at the cloak and Blake tossed it over them, wrapping an arm around Jaune in order to keep a small profile under the cloak. She pulled out the map from the pocket Jaune feebly motioned at and skimmed it.
"I think that they are falling apart. I've noticed their letters shrinking a bit." Jaune looked at the girl next to him and let out a ragged breath.
"Don't. I know you are trying to help, but I don't want to get any false hope. I can't compete with Mr. Suave." Blake gave him a quick squeeze with the arm around him as they walked up the stairs to the third floor.
"Sorry." She could see the saddened expression on the face of the boy next to her, his ocean blue eyes deeper than she had seen before. They walked in silence to the common room, where they sat in front of the dying fire after Jaune had set Weiss on the loveseat that she preferred that was just the right distance from the hearth.
"What about Sun? Heard from him recently?" The question surprised Blake. She had honestly not heard from the boy for a couple weeks, since just before Halloween. She drew feet up onto the couch that they were sitting on, stretching them across Jaune's lap.
"Not since the day before Hollow's eve. I'm not too torn up about it. I was never really into him, not like Weiss and Neptune are." She looked at Jaune. "And Pyrrha?"
"She's doing well. She misses you guys, she asked me to tell you." They sat in a peaceful silence for a while before Jaune broke the silence. "How did you do it? I know that last year you and Adam were pretty close." The hand that was resting on her calf closed a bit as Blake stared into the fire, the flames dancing in her auburn irises.
"We just kinda fell apart. However, if I had to point a finger, it was mainly my fault. I learned more about him and didn't like what I found. That was the start of the rift." She glanced at Jaune, who was also staring deep into the fire. "Then I just found someone else, which really helped me get my mind off of him." He turned to look at her, surprised.
"Really? Have I met him before?" Blake smirked, but before she could respond, Weiss suddenly woke up with a start, earning the attention of both of them. The snow haired girl looked at them in confusion.
"Where's my book bag? And my project?" The sudden question earned a laugh from both Jaune and Blake. Jaune pointed at the bag just below her and Weiss let out an audible sigh of relief. "If you lost my project, you dunce…"
"It's there, Weiss." Jaune replied as Blake took her legs off his lap and grabbed her bag.
"I'm going to bed. I finished my project in the library." She gave Jaune a quick hug, her arm knocking his head into her hip, earning a grumble of protest from the boy, who rubbed the spot after she let go. She gave Weiss a quick wave before setting up the stairs.
"Lucky." Weiss mumbled as she pulled out her project. Jaune approached as she spread her materials over the table she had commandeered. He took the chair next to hers and she immediately pushed a paper covered in runes at him. "Find out what's wrong, it just stopped working since the library." He arched an eyebrow at her, but turned to the paper and read the notes that had jotted down on the sides, finding no mistakes, before examining the runes. The issue was glaring.
"Weiss, there was a blob of ink on the paper." He vanished the still wet ink as she turned to face him. She snatched the paper back, activating the rune. It glowed and apparently did what it was supposed to, for a relieved smile spread on the petite girl's face, bringing a small smile to Jaune's face as well. She quickly carved the runes onto the smooth crystal and the stone glowed with a soft light. Weiss stood up and wrapped Jaune in a massive hug. He gladly hugged back, happy to be this close to his longtime crush, before he noticed that she was quietly crying into his flannel shirt. He pulled back slightly and brushed a thumb over her cheek, wiping away a silent tear.
"Hey, what's going on?" She looked up at him with her still teary eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but closed it, as nothing seemed to be able to come out. She unclenched her right hand from the front of his flannel and gently caressed his cheek, running a thumb to mirror how he had just done to her. Jaune slightly pressed his face into the newfound touch, closing his eyes.
"Jaune." Her voice was scratchy and he could hear her stuffed nose from crying in her voice. He opened his eyes and locked with her ice blue eyes, which were very close to his. He pulled away slightly to sit her down on the loveseat. She tugged him down, the two sitting so close that their legs were flush against each other.
"Yeah?" He replied in an equally scratchy tone. She pulled a letter out of her pocket and handed it to him, pointing at a certain place on it. He read it and looked up at her with astonishment. "Why?" She leaned into him, grabbing his free hand with hers. He rested his head on top of hers when he felt her lay it on his shoulder.
"He said that he never really stood a chance. That I always had my eyes somewhere else, even when we first met. Being away from him for this long has made me realize that it was a short fling, while I tried to deny my feeling for someone else." He felt her turn her head to look at him and he looked back at her.
They were so close that their foreheads were leaning against each other and in a bout of bravery, Jaune closed the gap, capturing Weiss' lips with his. He felt her melt under the pressure and move her lips in tandem against his, placing her free hand on his cheek. He felt his heart beat speed up and he moved his hand to her waist, grabbing it and squeezing lightly and earning a quick gasp from the girl. They slowly parted and Weiss fell back into the position they were in before, her head on his shoulder and holding his hand.
"How long?" Jaune's voice was soft and quiet as he looked at the girl. She looked at him and kissed him again, though not as long. When they finally broke apart again, she smiled at him softly.
"I don't know. I think it was sometime after I saw you with Pyrrha after Neptune and I became a thing." Jaune looked away, pain evident in his eyes. Weiss cupped his chin with concern on her face. "What?"
"I-I'm afraid that I made a mistake with Pyrhha. We kissed a couple times and I think that I led her on." He teared up, looking at Weiss with a mixture of concern and fear. "I don't want to lose her as my best friend just because of a mistake I made while jealous."
"You can deal with that when you see her next. But I have some apologizing to do." He looked down in puzzlement as the girl kissed him again.
When he finally rolled out of bed the next morning, the only physical reminder of the night was the slight ache in his nose from Yang's quick jab. He showered at a leisurely pace since it was Sunday and he had finished all of his schoolwork for the next week. When he finally wandered down to the Great Hall for breakfast, he joined the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors, sitting next to Blake and across from Weiss. He quickly grabbed his usual plate of hash browns with hot sauce and a cup of orange juice. He quickly made eye contact with the girl across from him and they smiled at each other. Nora looked up from her large stack of pancakes at him.
"Jaune-Jaune! Where's your cloak? It's chilly outside and we are heading to Hogsmeade after this!" He saw a small shake of the head from Weiss quickly followed by a swift kick to the shin. He bit his tongue so he didn't yelp and shot a glare at Weiss who was suddenly very interested in her breakfast. He focused back on the group who were all clearly interested in the brief interaction that the two had just shared.
"Sorry, Weiss was reminding me that she asked me to help her with Arithmancy, so I'm not going to be coming today. Could someone get me some Ice Mice, please? I'm running low." Yang quickly volunteered to do so and Jaune flipped her a galleon. "Thanks."
The group departed soon after, leaving the two at the table. Jaune looked at the girl across from him.
"You don't need help with Arithmancy, do you?" She smirked at him.
"Actually, I do. But it's something that should take about ten minutes for you to explain." Jaune laughed and stood up.
"Well let's get that straightened out for you. Then a walk sounds nice." They met at the end of the table, linking hands. When they arrived back in Gryffindor Tower, they sat down on Weiss' usual loveseat and curled up next to each other. Jaune voiced what both of them were thinking.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Weiss bit her lip and looked up at him.
"No. But I sure as hell want to try it."
