Chapter 7 – Exciting Relaxation

Ren's usual calm disposition had changed recently. His life motto is: 'I don't do anything I don't have to do. If I have to do it, I'll do it quickly.' He was afraid that he did in fact have to do something about his friends problem. But it would be a slow process, no matter the direction he took.

Ren had intended to speed up the process by giving Pyrrha a little push in the right direction, but now he's afraid that he just threw her into a fight she'd rather not be in. Luckily, his best friend was always looking out for him, to an extent that's borderline creepy. Nora had obviously noticed Ren's change in mood, most would say he was acting the same, but for Nora the change was drastic.

She didn't know what the problem was, but she'd do everything in her power to cheer her lov- Best Friend… up. "Nora, where are we going, and why am I carrying this basket?" Ren asked, with no hint of confusion whatsoever, as if he were simply stating a fact. "Oh Renny, we're going to have a picnic in the Emerald Forest of course! We can eat your meals, and play tag, and hunt some monsters. Ooh, it'll be so much fun!"

Ren couldn't help but offer a rare smile at his lov- Best Friend's… antics. As they sat down under a tree with a fairly large amount of foot prints around it, Ren decided to ask Nora's point of view on their groups current situation. "Say Nora, have you noticed that team RWBY has been acting differently around Jaune lately?" Nora's beaming smile found itself getting smaller at the mention of their friends dillema. "Yeah, I dunno why though. They should be happy, like us!" Ren smirked at this. "All of team RWBY, even Pyrrha, have feelings for Jaune. I'm rather surprised Nora, I wasn't expecting you to be so oblivious about other people's feelings." Nora's eye twitched.

Ren learned something that day, something he never thought possible. Nora can feel rage. "How can I be so oblivious?! What about you?! I've been in love with you for years?! HOW HAVE YOU NEVER NOTICED?!" Nora would soon remember the look on Ren's face to be absolutely priceless, he was shocked beyond words. "B-because, I've been in love with you for years, Nora. I've just never known that you liked me back… th-this can't be real, I must be dreaming." Nora had an ecstatic smile on her face, one could almost call it euphoric. "Even if you were dreaming Ren, you'd still wake up with me in your bed." She stated with a wink as she slowly crept closer to her… her love. "Uhh, Nora? You're getting a little close there." Her reply shut him up instantly. Nora pressed her lips against Ren's, butterflies erupted in her stomach while she closed her eyes and deepened the kiss.

Ren's eyes snapped open the moment their lips touched, a million thoughts raged through his head in the second it took for him to start kissing back. Neither of the two had ever done this before, both scaring away any possible suitors from their best friend and therefore never having any deep relationships with others. Their first kiss was with each other and they couldn't have been happier. As they parted, the two looked into each other's eyes and smiled. "I love you Nora." Ren said, finally admitting his seven year-long secret. "I know!" Nora shouted happily. To the naked eye, one would think that Ren's mood hadn't changed from her reply. But Nora knew every nuance of Ren and could tell that his emotions flared for half an instant. She of course knew the reason why.

"I love you too, Ren." She admitted, for once acting lax and calm, instead of her usual bubbly self. The two newly found lovers shared an embrace that was only broken the moment Nora decided that they hadn't kissed enough yet. Ren realized that he wouldn't be able to focus too much attention on RWBY and Jaunes relationship from now on. He'd have his own on his mind.


The couple returned to Beacon grounds many hours later to the confused looks of their friends, Pyrrha had asked where they were the whole time while Yang just gave them a knowing smirk. She knew, Ren had no idea how or why. But Yang already knew.

He figured it would be best to just admit it then and there, instead of dragging out an unnecessary secret. "Nora and I were on a date." Ren stated as he looked at his friends unsurprised expressions. "You go on dates almost every day though, what did you do this time?" Asked Ruby, confused by Ren's obvious answer to Pyrrha's question. "It wasn't a date…" He said as his tone somehow became more serious. "It was a date-date."

The collective gasp that followed could shatter an eardrum. "You mean you two are finally going out now?!" Pyrrha shouted with glee. "I can't believe it took you so long!" Nora perked up at this. "I know right?! We've been friends for sooooo long, I kept giving him so many hints but he'd never act on them. We've been sleeping in the same bed for years!" Weiss was confused by this. "Wait, but we've only been going to Beacon for a few months now…" "EXACTLY!" Exclaimed Nora, not even bothering to hide her disappointment. "At least now we can do stuff while we're there…"

"NONE OF THAT IN THE DORM ROOM!" Pyrrha screamed, a huge red blush on her face. "Awww, but we'd let you and Jaune do it in the room when you two finally get toghrrphrr." Ren had clasped his hand around Nora's mouth in an attempt to keep the fragile team RWBY from another screaming match. "I think you could use something better than that to cover her mouth with Ren." Yang said with a wink and no shame. 'You know what, scream all you want Yang.'

He let go of Nora's mouth only for his to be covered with it instead, Nora pulled her lips away with a wide grin on her face. "That's what Yang meant, right Ren?" He quickly glanced to the side. "Uhh, sure. Yeah, that's what she meant." Yang was about to correct him when her own mouth was covered by the hands of her partner. "I think that's enough for now Yang, they only just started going out, no need to ruin their innocence so soon." Blake said with slight chagrin.

Jaune simply laughed. "I'm really happy for you guys, I hope this works out for you in the end." He said with a thumbs up. "Anyway, I think I'm gonna hit the hay now, it's getting kind of late and I want to get in some extra practise in the morning. 'Night." He muttered, while returning to his dorm room for bed. "Good night, Jaune." Everyone replied as his form crept around the corner.

Ren and Nora soon followed, not missing the change in atmosphere when their leader left. As they also disappeared, Pyrrha spoke up. "Alright you guys, it's been a nice day and I'd rather not ruin it. But it's time we talk about Jaune, we all know already." Yang and Blake gained looks of understanding from her words, if Weiss knew what she meant, she didn't act like it, and Ruby truly didn't know what she meant. "What are you talking about Pyrrha? Why would we talk about Jaune?"

Yang sighed at this, if anyone was going to tell her, it should be her sister. "Ruby, we all know that you have feelings for him." Ruby looked terrified at this. "Weiss does too, I don't know about Blake and I certainly care about him. Liking him might be a bit much but… I'm not sure. It's pretty obvious that Pyrrha likes him as well." Blake nodded at this. "We need to talk this through, we can't just keep having awkward small talk and weird looks all the time. We're a team and we need to act like it."

"I should probably enter that conversation too." A voice perked up from behind the group, turning around they found it belonging to Velvet. "After all, I believe I have feelings for him too." Pyrrha 'hummed' in agreement. "It's settled then, tomorrow morning at seven o'clock, we all meet up in the training grounds and talk, not scream. Talk, like adults should." Everyone nodded in agreement.


Jaune felt torn. He was happy for his friends, even he could tell that they were in love with each other. But it just made him realize that there aren't any girls he could be with. He wouldn't dare ask any of his friends out, in fear of ruining their friendship, and he knew it'd be a terrible idea anyway. He didn't know any other girls besides them though.

Jaune slowly drifted off to sleep as he contemplated speed dating, or perhaps online dating. Or maybe Ren had a sister… His thoughts turned to clouds as he dreamt peacefully. Completely unaware of the girls that had all fallen for him.

Jaune woke up to find that he was the only one left in his room. He found this very odd, seeing as he set his alarm for six thirty, way earlier than any of they would wake up on a Sunday. He figured that Nora would want to spend more time together with Ren, so she (somehow) woke him up and left before anyone else. He couldn't figure out why Pyrrha wasn't there though. She always sleeps in on Sundays.

Figuring it to be none of his business, Jaune got ready, went to the cafeteria for some breakfast and returned to his dorm, to see if anyone on team RWBY wanted to train in sparring. As he knocked on the door, silence followed and nothing more. The first thing he noticed was that the room was left unlocked, creaking it open no more than a centimetre, Jaune looked inside.

It was empty.

'Alright, this is just getting weird. Where is everyone? It's Sunday for God's sake.' Jaune decided that his training could wait, it was only seven o'clock, he still had time. He searched around campus for any and all of his friends, from the deserted classrooms to the spire that gives Beacon its namesake. By the time he checked everywhere, it was already seven thirty on his watch. His Scroll broke in the Emerald Forest and it takes a while for those to be re-administered. Cost him half a fortune too.

Suspecting that everyone had all left for town and simply left Jaune to sleep, he decided that he'd wasted enough of his training time searching for people he wouldn't be able to find. If he did this every morning he'd never improve. Jogging to the Training Facility, Jaune entered to find it half empty, the only people in there seemed to be other Hunters like him, eager to improve upon their skills. Something bothered him though, everyone seemed very nervous. And the amount of people in the main hallway confused him as well. 'Why aren't they in any of the training rooms?'

Jaune walked forward, only to bump into someone walking parallel to him. Upon closer inspection, the person was the owner of the school, Professor Ozpin. "Ah, I'm s-sorry sir, I should've been paying more attention." He stated, clearly uncomfortable with the man he knew could throw him out on a moment's notice. The two never really interact. "Not at all Mr Arc, my mind was elsewhere just now." He noticed Jaune fidgeting under his gaze. "Is something the matter?" He asked as cool and uninterested as ever. Reminds Jaune of Ren.

"N-no, not at all sir. Uhh, why was your mind um, 'elsewhere' earlier?" Jaune felt very little when the Professor's expression change to that of minor annoyance. "It seems that yours and Miss Rose's teams are fighting in the arena." He felt even smaller when he didn't understand the problem. "Isn't that what they're supposed to do sir? It is a combat arena after all." Ozpin smiled at Jaunes obliviousness. "That is true, Mr Arc, but I'm afraid that this fight will not hone their combat prowess in the slightest, only hinder it in the field.

Jaune paled when he finally understood what the headmaster had meant. He immediately ran past the Professor and directly towards the first room he saw, he could already hear it. "Oh, God no…" Bursting open the doors, Jaune finally came across what he was dreading the most.

"HOW CAN YOU EVEN SAY THAT?! YOU'RE SO YOUNG, YOU PROBABLY DON'T EVEN UNDERSTAND HOW YOU FEEL! BESIDES, YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT HIM!"

It looks like his training would have to wait after all…