Cardin is once again helpfully OOC, but bear with it for the sake of this bromance! :D
The day started with a beautiful symmetry. Both Cardin and Jaune got up early, dressed themselves and attended to their hygiene with particular care, checked over their preparations one final time in the mirror and gave their reflection the best smile possible. Both were on the edge. Both were excited to the point of glee.
Today is the day, they thought.
Jaune slipped Ren's notepad out from underneath his bed, frowning at the slightly rumpled pages. He smoothed the crinkles out and puzzled over the chart. The first order of the day would be to remove 'Thinks I'm fake' from the list.
"What makes her think that, anyway?" he whispered to himself.
Cardin had the whole plan laid out before him. He would bring a single red rose (something he had read about as being a symbol of love) and give his best shot at ad libbing the rest. No matter how he looked at it it seemed rushed. Somehow he wished that Jaune had given him an earlier heads up. At least that would have given him more time to worry about her reaction.
He ran a few simulations in his mind, testing the feel of each. First, crushing rejection. He would have to be prepared for that, it was almost an inevitability. Then, acceptance. How did he react to that? He tried out a couple of responses on his tongue.
"Thank you? Thank you, dear god? Uh, thanks?"
That was no good. Any sign of uncertainty would have a negative impact on her mood and may prompt an attack. He had heard this from one of professor Port's lectures, though the subject of conversation may or may not have been women. Pyrrha wasn't really the type to resort to violence anyway. She was a kind person, the surrogate mother of team JNPR and helpful to all her classmates. She would never knowingly hurt another person outside of combat. The redhead was more likely to let him down easy and say something like 'lets be friends'.
Except they had never been friends in the first place. More like, 'lets stay at each others throats forever'.
He let out a deep sigh as he walked to the food court for breakfast, muttering to himself and drawing a few unwanted gazes. As he stalked, the larger boy was joined by a grumbling Jaune.
"What am I gonna do?"
"Cardin?"
The sound of Arc's voice irked the larger boy. He turned slowly to face a nervous looking Jaune, holding his tray and shifting from side to side expectantly. Cardin sighed.
"Sit down."
Jaune obliged.
"What is it?"
"Well, I've heard you're reading romance novels."
Cardin choked on his pancake. The blonde jumped up, a mini panic attack taking hold of him, then did the first thing that came to mind and swiftly thumped Cardin on the back. Jaune's hand clanged off the back of his armor ineffectively and Cardin took a turn at pounding the front of his chestpiece, forcing his meal down.
"What?" he shrieked, his voice cracking a bit from the shock.
"I heard it from Blake, don't look at me like that," Jaune whined, shaking feeling back into his hand.
"Nonono, you've got it all wrong. It was... research! I was in the library researching!" The lie fell a bit flat, as Cardin rarely put thought into his academic work.
"I know you were researching..." Jaune coaxed, "that's why I want you to share some of that knowledge with me. I need to confess to Weiss before the dance."
"Do it yourself," the bully snorted. "I didn't read through the Nagase arc for nothing." The implications of that sentence dawned on him and he slapped his hands over his mouth. "Wait, you didn't hear that."
"C'moooon," Jaune drawled. "You can't let me in on just one little romantic secret?"
"Never! Go read them yourself!"
"Don't be that way~. We're friends, aren't we?"
Cardin blinked. Friends? After all he had put Jaune through? He must really be desperate for Weiss' attention. Should he help him, as a fellow hopeless romantic, or leave him as he always would? Hesitating slightly, he leaned in and lowered his voice.
"What do you want to know?"
Jaune beamed and ran over his list in his mind. "Weiss thinks I'm fake, how do I fix that?"
Cardin leaned back, running a hand over his chin and "hmmm"ing, pulling the same strained thinking face he had worn the day before.
"Well, what do you usually do?"
"Oh, the usual: pick up lines, singing, dancing. Anything that can get her attention really." The blonde laughed awkwardly, embarrassed to be sharing his feelings so readily with the guy he had labored under not too long ago.
Shaking his head, Cardin interjected. "That's exactly the problem! Are you a singer?"
"Well... no," Jaune replied, defeated. "But how else can I get her to even look at me?" He slumped in his seat, stabbing his pancakes halfheartedly. "I don't have much of a chance at turning her head otherwise."
Cardin cleared his throat. "One thing I've learned from my... research," he began sheepishly, "is that relationships based on false appearances don't last. The truth always comes out eventually no matter how you try to hide it, at least in fiction, and ruins the girl's impression of the guy (or vice versa, depending on whether the main character is a guy or a girl). This, in turn, can be reversed by being true to the guy's own personality and reestablishing a relationship around that," Cardin quoted. "Basically, your only chance is being up front about you and your feelings."
Jaune sat up straight and nodded enthusiastically. "That made no sense at all."
Rubbing his temples, Cardin explained in simpler terms. "Try to show Weiss the real you. If it doesn't work, maybe it wasn't meant to be. As long as you do that, you can be satisfied with the result, right?"
"I dunno..." Jaune ran a hand through his hair, not wanting to think about what would happen after being rejected. "Well, you're the expert here... I guess?"
Cardin denied furiously.
"One more thing," he added. "Weiss thinks I'm a loser."
The taller boy chuckled. "She doesn't think you're a loser, you are a loser. Don't worry about it, losers always have a shot at the girl."
The blonde thanked Cardin and scampered off, leaving his lunch tray behind in his excitement. Cardin finished off his own plate and started on Jaune's breakfast, considering it payment for the consultation. Suddenly realizing he had been smiling, he slapped his cheek and shook away the look of content.
"'Friends', he says..."
Jaune had been jittering all day in anticipation. He had jittered his way through Dueling, losing as per usual to another student. He jittered his pencil to the ground a total of twenty three times in Grimm Studies. He had nearly jittered himself off of his seat in History before catching himself.
The whole time he kept repeating to himself 'The real me, the real me.' Pyrrha looked over to him strangely. Was it just her, or were Jaune and Cardin acting almost like mirror images of each other?
The final bell rang, and Jaune made a mad dash for the door, jumping over and subsequently falling over a desk in the process.
"Watch your step, Arc," warned Professor Oobleck. Some kids snickered, but Jaune shrugged it off.
"Yessir," he replied joyously, stumbling over another student's bag before skipping away feeling light as air. He had figured it all out in class (though he suspected he might just have to borrow Ren's notes again later, he hadn't really been thinking straight): he would meet her under the moonlight, present her with a single red rose (which he had read was a symbol of love or something on the internet) and ask her to the dance. No guitar, no song, no fuzzy costumes, just Jaune Arc in all his hopelessly head over heels glory.
"Ah wait, what if she's allergic to pollen?" He facepalmed, his plans dashed to smithereens. "Dammit!"
"No worries, roses are more or less fine for allergenics," mumbled Cardin. "Something about being perfect flowers and not using the air to pollinate... or something."
Jaune's eyes widened. "Since when are you a flower enthusiast?"
"Can it, Arc. I have my reasons for being interested."
Jaune slowed to match the larger boy's pace, the two strolling back to the dorms. He had apparently removed his armor and was dressed in a strangely pristine school uniform.
"When did you change?"
"Around lunchtime."
"No, I mean in general. When did you start reading and knowing things about flowers... and dressing nice too I guess. And helping people off the floor!" he added, remembering Blake's story.
Cardin cocked his head to the side, mulling over the events of the past few days. His pensive face had improved with the recent practice it had been getting. "I guess, when you told me to go for it. Asking Pyrrha to the dance, I mean. I'd just never thought about being more than a cliche school bully until then," he admitted sadly.
"And now, what do you want to be?" Jaune probed, enjoying the fruit of his labor immensely.
"I want to be..." Cardin started, then blushed profusely and turned away. "You know what, I don't have to be anything. I'll... that's right, I'll be a hunter! The best hunter there ever was! That's what I'm here for, isn't it?"
"True, true," the blonde chuckled. "And that's all there is to it."
"Right."
"Of course."
Jaune turned right at the intersection, heading in the direction of team JNPR's room. Cardin walked in the opposite direction towards team CRDL's room.
"See you, Cardin."
"Later, Arc."
The doors slammed. The two team leaders looked themselves over in their respective mirrors and fussed over their suits. After laying his armor on the bed and changing into his second best formal attire, Jaune trotted out again in search of a flower shop or perhaps an unattended vase. Cardin listened to his footsteps fade away before sighing deeply and opening the door.
"I want to be in love."
Disclaimer: I love all the TWGOK arcs more or less equally, so I just picked the one Cardin would probably be least interested in. The entirety of the manga is freaking perfect for anyone who loves really fluffy love stories with a big helping of humor and a pinch of fantasy. Wait, am I allowed to recommend other manga here? And shouldn't a disclaimer be at the beginning of a chapter?
Question for any more experienced fanfic writers and readers out there, what is an acceptable wait period between chapters? I've been restrained by travel recently for a few days, but is a week between each chapter too much or too little?
Anyway, one thing I don't like about RWBY is how little the guys get to have bro moments. What with being the only two decent guys within ten feet of the canon, don't you think Ren and Jaune might have a bonding moment over the crazy women in their lives or something? I also love redemption stories, so Cardin and Jaune are a perfect pair for me; somewhat generic male friends who can have a laugh together and talk about their hopeless single stories or something.