Chapter 7:

Ruby still looked shaken from Jaune's shouting. Which made Weiss worried: it didn't matter what life threw at Ruby, she would always bounce back in a matter of minutes. Even when Weiss had treated her badly when they first met, Ruby was sad for all of a few seconds and then was back to her normal smiling self. Weiss had never seen Ruby be this sad this long.

"Is Ruby okay?" Yang asked when the made it to class. Jaune had sat well away from everyone else, leaving Ren and Nora confused until Pyrrha explained in a hushed whisper to them what had happened. Ruby was still out of it, and Weiss was busy making sure she was as close to Ruby as possible. They all had to change into their combat gear for Glynda's class. Glynda hadn't arrived yet, so they could talk freely.

"Jaune said that?" Nora asked. "I mean, wow! I never thought he had an angry bone in his body."

"I just want to know how he found out," Blake said, crossing her arms and legs as she thought out loud. "It's not like Weiss and Ruby have gone around telling everyone."

"He must've seen them together somewhere," Yang said. Weiss' brain started working. Nora had said he was in a bad mood all of Sunday. Which meant that Jaune must've seen her and Ruby together in the main courtyard on Saturday. Weiss didn't bother voicing this fact, as it had no bearing on what she was going to do. Weiss kept a firm grip on Ruby's hand, not letting go. Yang wrapped an arm around Ruby's shoulder, and Weiss saw a small smile on Ruby's face. Good, Ruby was going to be okay.

Glynda arrived, and began the class. They were going to be in different combat situations, to prepare them for the Vytal Festival Tournament. Glynda was going to use a variation of the Vytal Festival's random match generator to determine opponents. First up…Pyrrha vs Team CRDL. That was going to be an interesting fight.

Pyrrha was distracted by thoughts of Jaune. Why he was so angry, and how to break him out of it before Weiss got to him. But distraction or no, she was one of the top ranked fighters in the world, and that fact kept her above water while she debated on what to do with her personal life. Even with four against one, CRDL was no match for her and her superior training. In almost no time at all, she had beaten all of them, leaving them exhausted and her slightly out of breath. Pyrrha had enjoyed that: she was still angry at Cardin for the way he had treated Jaune.

"Excellent work, Pyrrha," Glynda said, "Now, does anyone else want a match?" Glynda liked to let the students volunteer sometimes. It made it easier to see who was too distracted to fight.

"I do," Weiss said loudly, raising a hand. Everyone looked at her, surprised. Weiss never volunteered for anything since she challenged the Grimm in Professor Port's first class.

Oh no. Pyrrha had an epiphany on what Weiss had planned. And she was right.

"I challenge Jaune," Weiss said, dramatically pointing towards him. Everyone immediately began talking. If they weren't in the breakfast hall when it happened, they had been told by their friends not only that Ruby Rose and Weiss Schnee were a couple but that Jaune Arc had lost his temper because Weiss wasn't going out with him instead. Glynda had heard as well: she heard everything that happened in her school. Students pairing off was not something she agreed with, but she couldn't stop it so she allowed it with some grace. But personal vendettas were not something she approved of at all. But, Glynda reflected, if they had to work out their personal issues, she would rather it be regulated and somewhere where she could step in.

"Alright," Glynda said, "If Jaune consents, the match will begin in five minutes."

Jaune didn't bother saying anything. He stood up, glared in the general direction of Weiss and Ruby, huffed and walked away to retrieve his weapon. Weiss stood as well, leaning down to kiss Ruby's forehead before going to retrieve Myrtenaster, her rapier. Ruby grabbed her hand before she left, making Weiss stop and stare.

"You don't have to do this, Weiss," Ruby said, "It's not worth it."

"Don't worry," Weiss said, smiling, "I won't hurt him." Reluctantly, Ruby let go of her hand and Weiss left the stands. Weiss let the smile fall from her face. "Permanently." Weiss retrieved her weapon and checked her supply of Dust. Plenty for what she planned to do.

"Weiss, this is not a good idea," Pyrrha had entered the locker room and come up to her. Jaune had clearly left already. "Hurting Jaune physically isn't going to mend his heart."

"I'll leave that to you," Weiss said, and Pyrrha could hear the restraint in her voice. "He made Ruby cry. I will not let that stand." Weiss slammed her locker door shut, and Pyrrha jumped.

"Weiss," Pyrrha said, trying to make her see sense. But Weiss stalked past her, not paying her any attention now. "Oh, I hope she doesn't hurt him too badly." Pyrrha said, before putting her gear away and joining the others in the stands.

"Go Weiss!" Yang was cheering out as Weiss entered the arena. Jaune was already there, swinging his sword in practice. Weiss was simply spinning the Dust chamber in her weapon. "Kick his butt!"

"Fight well!" Blake said. It was her usual cheer when it came to this sort of thing. She'd spent too much of her life fighting to survive to truly care about competition fighting. But friends deserved support, so she gave it.

"Break his legs!" Nora yelled savagely. Pyrrha looked at Nora askance.

"Nora! He's our leader and teammate!" Pyrrha admonished her, while almost agreeing with her intention. "We really should be on his side."

"Jaune has behaved dishonourably," Ren said quietly, "As much as I consider him a brother, I'm firmly on Weiss' side in this argument." That surprised Pyrrha, but not too much. More that Ren was taking a side.

"I should have told him sooner," Ruby said, "Maybe it wouldn't be so bad."

"It's not your fault, Ruby," Yang said, hugging her sister, "Jaune should've taken the hint a lot earlier. He's got this coming." Ruby sighed. She hated having this bad feeling inside her. Ruby didn't know how to fix this, but she was sure that violence wasn't going to solve anything.

Weiss and Jaune faced each other in the arena. Jaune glared furiously at her. How dare she play with his feelings? Well, he'd show her. He'd show everyone.

Sense was not really reaching Jaune's brain right now. What the reality of the situation was and what he thought it was were totally different things. But Jaune was not a self-confident person, so his own insecurities were blowing this situation out of proportion and filling him with rage.

Weiss was calm on the exterior, but nursing her own rage on the inside. Their relationship may be new, but Weiss loved Ruby with all her icy heart. She should have explained to Jaune that they would never be a thing well before this, but she had been so used to guys trying to win her heart she never considered that Jaune wouldn't act the same as them. But then again, she'd never gotten into a relationship with someone else trying to woo her before.

It was all academic at this point. Jaune had made Ruby cry and feel worthless. That was unforgivable. Weiss spun the Dust container inside around, thinking about her strategy. Jaune had no Semblance, or at least not one he knew about. That meant Weiss only had to worry about his swordsmanship. Weiss had studied Pyrrha's fighting style when she wanted to partner with her on their first day, and figured Jaune would have elements of it. The only unknown really was his strategic mind: Weiss may disparage him for thinking it, but Jaune had the brain of a master tactician. Weiss was good with prepared strategies and tactics, but Jaune just had a knack for on the fly tactics. Ruby was much the same way, so it was something Weiss could anticipate.

"Let the match begin," Glynda said, and a bell rang. Jaune let out a battle cry and charged forward, swinging his sword with blind rage. Weiss dodged his sword strikes, before back flipping and calling on her Semblance. Using a glyph, Weiss launched herself into the air and summoned more glyphs, switching to her Fire Dust. The glyphs turned red and Weiss swung her blade, shooting fire balls towards Jaune. Jaune didn't bother dodging: he raised his shield and called on his Aura. He didn't have fine control of his Aura yet, but brute control was easy. Jaune's shield was pummelled by the heat, but he didn't burn. That was a plus, but when he moved his shield, Weiss was coming down with a battle shriek. Their swords met, and their glares were matched. Weiss flipped out of the way, summoning more glyphs to speed her out of reach of Jaune's blade.

"She's toying with him," Pyrrha said, watching the battle intensely as Weiss zipped around the battle field, just staying ahead of Jaune's strikes. Jaune was getting tired, and Weiss was barely out of breath. The difference between them was vast, but not insurmountable. But Jaune wasn't fighting with careful strategy and trying to figure out how to beat Weiss properly. Jaune was fighting with anger, which meant all strategy went out the window.

"Weiss," Ruby said, worried. Weiss didn't look like she'd get hurt, but all it took was one misstep and Jaune would be on her. Ruby was twitching in her seat, torn between sitting still and wanting to help. Ruby didn't want one of her best friends and her girlfriend fighting. Especially not on her account.

Back in the arena, and Jaune was losing energy fast. He checked his Aura level on his scroll, embedded in its niche on the back of the shield. It was about halfway depleted, and he hadn't landed a hit on Weiss yet. Weiss stood, poised and perfectly unafraid, Weiss smirked as she flicked her hair back and brandished Myrtenaster. A fencing pose, one that meant she wasn't threatened. Fine, two could play that game. Jaune let his shield drop to the floor and advanced on Weiss, his sword in a two-hand grip. Weiss didn't back away, and the two engaged in a quick sword duel. Weiss' fencing style was ill-equipped to handle Jaune's fierce two handed style. Weiss was fast, but she couldn't keep up under the pressure and tried to deflect the blows to no effect. Jaune got past her guard and hit her three times in quick succession, disarming her and knocking her back. Weiss lost balance and hit the ground, hard.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled out. It took every ounce of her willpower to not just jump into the arena unarmed and stop Jaune.

Jaune advanced on Weiss, all his self-loathing and anger from his perceived slights making his sword arm tremble. Weiss tried to back away, but without her sword, she wasn't sure what to do. She heard Ruby call her name, and it was like the world fell away. Weiss felt a glyph form behind her, and she focused on both her anger at Jaune and her love for Ruby. It was like something clicked in her brain and as Jaune brought his blade down for a finishing blow, Weiss threw her hands forward to defend herself. Glynda brought her riding crop up to stop Jaune before he seriously hurt Weiss, but she stopped, surprised.

Jaune's sword was blocked with another, larger sword wielded by an enormous armoured gauntlet. Before he had time to process what happened, the sword smacked Jaune all the way to the other side of the arena before disappearing, sending him dizzy and unable to get back up. Weiss was struck dumb by what she'd just done: she'd Summoned. It was an aspect of her Glyph Semblance that had eluded her, despite spending months practicing. Her sister had mastered it and could Summon any number of Grimm constructs. Her father was a bit more rigid in his Summoning, only ever calling on giant knights in armour. Which was what Weiss had just summoned. It was only an arm, but it was a huge development for her.

"Weiss!" Ruby called out again, snapping Weiss out of her paralysis. "Hurry up and kick Jaune's butt!" There was her usual cheeriness. Weiss scrambled to her feet and ran to Myrtenaster, rolling to grab it and spinning the dust around to her preferred type of Dust. Time for a manoeuvre she'd been practicing. With a few careful gestures, several glyphs surrounded Jaune. Weiss used another to jump forward and she began to move at supersonic speeds, bouncing between the glyphs surrounding Jaune almost too fast for anyone to follow. Myrtenaster was like a spear, and with a few quick moves, Jaune's Aura was gone. Weiss landed and with a turn and a quick flick of her blade, Weiss summoned ice to surround Jaune, pinning him to the ground. Weiss advanced and put her blade to Jaune's uncovered face and drew back, cutting it and eliciting a whiny cry of pain from Jaune.

"Just so you understand," Weiss said quietly as she quickly defrosted the ice covering Jaune. "We were never going to happen. Ever. I'm sorry you feel like Ruby betrayed you, but that wasn't her intention. Or mine. Oh," she added as Jaune stood, looking ashamed. Weiss stared him straight in his eyes until Jaune looked away. "And if you ever make Ruby cry again, this will not be the worst I do to you." With those parting words, Weiss slid Myrtenaster into the sash around her waist and stalked off, leaving Jaune behind.

Now that the fight was over and Jaune had exhausted his rage, his brain finally began to work and he realised what an idiot he had been. Weiss was right: nothing was ever going to happen between them and being a jerk about it wasn't going to win anything. Jaune felt extra worthless now; he'd probably wrecked his friendship with Ruby, and by extension Yang and Blake. His team probably didn't think that much of him either. Everything looked extra hopeless right now.

Weiss placed Myrtenaster back into her locker and turned into a tackle hug from Ruby. "Don't you ever do something like that again!" Ruby said, hugging Weiss tightly. "I'm so glad you're alright."

"Glynda would've stepped in if anything got too out of hand," Weiss said, "I didn't mean to make you worry."

"Of course I'm gonna worry, you 'dunce'," Ruby said, emulating Weiss' way of speaking for that one word, "That's what being your girlfriend is about, duh!"

"Oh, so it's okay for you to worry about me," Weiss said in mock indignation, "But if I worry enough to duel for your honour, it's bad?"

"No," Ruby said, poking Weiss in the ribs, "But you didn't have to do that. Jaune would have calmed down…maybe."

"Be honest," Weiss told her, "You enjoyed seeing me smack him around a little bit." Ruby looked at her with a smile in her eyes, and held her thumb and forefinger so they were almost touching. Weiss smiled and pulled Ruby into a kiss. It was passionate, and it helped to quiet the doubt in Ruby's heart and melt the ice around Weiss'. Weiss liked it when they were passionate.

"Maybe you two should refrain from public displays of affection, if it's going to lead to fights like this." Ruby and Weiss quickly broke apart as Glynda approached them. "Miss Schnee, for the future," Glynda said, adjusting her glasses, "A true Huntress shouldn't wear her heart on her sleeve like that. Though I should congratulate you on your Summoning. Oh, and my congratulations on your new relationship," Glynda said as she walked back to set up more matches as practice. "Finding love can be difficult." Ruby and Weiss blushed. A teacher congratulating them was a bit much.

Well after classes ended, Jaune was standing on the roof where he and Pyrrha train. He kept his distance from his team and RWBY. Jaune was too embarrassed to face them now.

"Somehow, I knew you'd be up here," a voice came from the door. Jaune turned around and saw Pyrrha, smiling at him. "Still feeling sorry for yourself?"

"Kinda, yeah," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head. "I've been an idiot. I shouldn't have overreacted like I did."

"You don't have to tell me that," Pyrrha said, walking up to Jaune and putting a hand on his shoulder. "What you should do is apologise to Ruby and Weiss."

"Like they're gonna want to talk to me," Jaune said sadly, kicking the ground. "I've messed everything up."

"Jaune," Pyrrha said, turning him around to face her. She'd been patient and understanding with Jaune, but clearly that wasn't working. So, she shook him, hard. "Snap out of it! So Weiss doesn't like you romantically. So you behaved atrociously. So what? Life goes on, and everything will fix itself. So swallow your pride and go apologise!" Pyrrha pointed towards the door for emphasis.

Jaune went a bit dizzy from the shaking, but conceded that Pyrrha was probably right. So, he went down and stood in front of Ruby's door and raised a hand to knock. Jaune hesitated a second, before summoning his courage and knocked.

The door opened a crack, and Weiss stared out of it. "What do you want?" Weiss asked coldly.

"I, uh," Jaune said nervously, "I wanted to apologise. For being a gigantic idiot." Weiss stared at Jaune for a second, then closed the door. Well, that turned out about as well as expected.

"Who was that?" Ruby asked, lounging on Weiss' bed, books strewn out over the pillows. They had been studying together when someone knocked on the door. Yang and Blake were…somewhere. Ruby had a funny feeling that they were trying to give her and Weiss privacy.

"Jaune," Weiss said, laying back on the bed and rolling onto her stomach and picking up a pen. "He wanted to apologise."

"Did you tell him to leave?" Ruby asked. Weiss frowned and shook her head. Ruby sighed and called out to the door, "Jaune, come in." The door opened and Jaune poked his head in. "You have to tell him to leave, otherwise he hangs around," Ruby explained to Weiss. "Well, let's hear it."

Jaune entered the room and took a deep breath before bowing his head. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry for behaving like a jerk. I'm sorry for yelling at you, Ruby. And I'm sorry for not being more supportive of the both of you."

"You're forgiven," Ruby said easily, prompting surprised looks from both Weiss and Jaune.

"Really?" Jaune asked, confused. "You're not mad at me?"

"Oh, I'm mad," Ruby said, her voice losing its normal cheerfulness. Which made Jaune very nervous. "You're not off the hook for being a giant jerk to us, but you're forgiven. And I know how you're going to make it up to us."

"Okay," Jaune said carefully. "What do I have to do?"

"Ask Pyrrha to the dance," Ruby said. Jaune didn't say anything, but Weiss looked at Ruby with a look of admiration and annoyance.

"Uh, okay," Jaune said, "And that's it?"

"That's it," Ruby said. Jaune left and Weiss gave Ruby a look. "What?"

"You let him off way too easily," Weiss said huffily. Ruby giggled, and Weiss glared at her. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Ruby said, "you just get really adorable when you get annoyed." Weiss frowned, but Ruby just kept smiling and Weiss felt her face rearrange into a smile in response.

"You," Weiss said, leaning forward and climbing almost on top of Ruby, "are making it very hard for me to be annoyed with you."

"That's good," Ruby said, leaning forward and closing her eyes, "I don't like it when you're annoyed with me." Their lips touched, and Ruby pulled Weiss into a passionate kiss, falling back onto the bed. After a few minutes of kissing, they broke apart, Ruby's arms firmly wrapped around Weiss. "We should probably finish the homework, huh?"

"We can finish it tomorrow," Weiss said, leaning in for another kiss. Before they could, there was a squeal of delight from across the hall.

"Sounds like Jaune asked Pyrrha to the dance," Ruby observed.

"I don't know what she sees in him," Weiss said. Seeing as homework was no longer a priority, the two of them decided that it would probably be a good time to get some sleep. So Weiss carefully packed away their books, and when she turned around, Ruby had already fallen asleep on Weiss' bed.

"Oh, what am I going to do with you?" Weiss asked out loud. Shaking her head, Weiss carefully pulled the covers from underneath Ruby and delicately climbed into bed, pulling the covers over the two of them. It probably would have made more sense for Weiss to wake Ruby, but she couldn't bear to disturb her. So, Weiss gently kissed Ruby's forehead and closed her eyes, drifting almost immediately to sleep.

Unbeknownst to Weiss, Ruby grinned to herself, her eyes still closed. Mission accomplished.