Several important things in the author's note so please read!
First point of interest, there is now a H'te Rarpee Facebook page, I will be posting updates on chapter progress, possibly sneak previews and maybe even a link to a Google document so you can creep on me while I write. Fun stuff, huh?
Also, very important, check the title of last chapter, there has been a bit of a change. You can thank TheCone Esq for that one.
The rest of the authors note will be at the bottom of this quite short, strange chapter. Apologies for the length and awkward timeline placing, but you will understand why when you get to the end.
Interlude, (This takes place just after chapter six)
Jaune winced.
Well, wince doesn't really do it justice.
He cringed.
Violently.
His hands were seriously starting to hurt, and for the life of him he could not work out why. After a conversation with the girls the morning after the…kiss…a system had been set up to regulate the massages so that Jaune was not overworked, and while he truly appreciated the sentiment, for the life of him he couldn't understand why. I mean, sure, his hands hurt, but it was only some bruises. He had dealt with much worse in his training with Pyrrha. And yet, even he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
Suddenly, the door slammed open. Jaune nearly leapt to the ceiling, but only sighed in relief when it was just Ren who came through the door. Ever since the kiss Jaune had been very wary of the girls. Their explosive reaction to him kissing Velvet had served to both upset and infuriate him, and he could only imagine what the reaction had been when Blake had kissed him.
He had not listened to the entirety of the conversation, but through his sleepy haze he could hear their muffled shouts from across the hall, more than once arousing the anger of other hall mates. It took another visit from Miss Goodwitch before they became quiet and Jaune was able to rest easy.
Jaune tried to wave to Ren, but only cringed again and held his hands before his face, looking at the two appendages with annoyance.
"Are you alright, Jaune?" said Ren.
Jaune attempted to smile, but merely grimaced again. His hands started to shake, and he leaned against the wall next to his bed and tried to control his breathing, only to jump again when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, Jaune," said Ren, who had gone down on one knee and was leaning over Jaune, worry shining in his normally stoic eyes, "do you need me to call the infirmary?"
Jaune shook his head, but stiffened and gave a wordless, pain filled moan as one of his hands brushed his bed. He slid down his bed post as agony ripped through his hands, and to his great frustration, tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.
While the damage was nothing in comparison to the training, his hands hurt more than any injury he could remember!
What in the name of Dust was going on!?
Through his watery vision, Jaune saw Ren reaching for his scroll and immediately shook his head.
"Jaune, you seriously need some help with this, alright?" Ren said, worry and frustration clear in his voice, "This is why I wanted you to stop doing those Massages, you are stressing out your muscles, and constant aura usage is not helping!"
"N-no…" Jaune groaned, "Please don't call for them…"
Ren looked at Jaune, then to his scroll, then back to his leader, and with an explosive sigh of frustration he closed the device and sat down in front of Jaune.
"Thanks…" Jaune muttered.
"Please don't mention it…" Ren sighed
They sat in relative silence, pierced only by occasional moans of pain from Jaune, as concern for Jaune and frustration at his unwillingness to ask for help from anyone built up inside of Ren.
In an attempt to calm himself down, Ren did some aura regulation exercises he had learned in early training.
Control his aura…push it down to his arms…feel it sweeping stress with it…push it to the hands and imagine the stress simply leaking out along with Ren's magenta aura…
However, unknown to Ren, he had unconsciously began to move his arms forwards as he imagined pushing his Aura down, and just as the aura reached his hands, said hands bumped into Jaune.
Jaune gasped in what sounded like agony, and Ren leapt backwards, only to hear Jaune cry out "No!" and reach forward, saying "Do that again, please!"
With obvious trepidation, Ren reached forward and took Jaune's hand in his own. Immediately, Jaune gasped in relief and took Ren's other hand in his other, sighing deeply.
"My aura…helps?" Ren said in disbelief.
"I don't know, nor do I care," Jaune said, leaning back on the bed and breathing calmly for the first time in what felt like hours.
They sat like that for a minute or two, and as Ren's mind drifted away from the fact that he was holding another man's hands and off to various subjects, his fingers absentmindedly began moving, rubbing and kneading Jaune's fingers and palms, only to be wrenched back to reality as Jaune gasped again.
This one sounded much less like relief and more like…
Pleasure.
"Please…" Jaune gasped, "Please keep doing that…"
The urge to bolt from the room was just barely overridden by the urge to stay and help ease his leaders pain, but it was with some obvious reluctance that Ren continued to knead and massage Jaune's hands, wincing every time Jaune gave a rather…explosive sigh of pleasure.
Jaune, on the other hand, was barely conscious. The pain in his hands had kept him from getting a lot of sleep lately, and now that the pain was both gone, and his hands felt better than they ever had, he found himself drifting away to sleep.
However, he was still conscious, in the end, and as he looked at Ren through half-lidded eyes, he began to notice things he had never seen before.
Ren looked…handsome…
Strong features, but not overly so. Soft eyes that were such a nice, comforting shade of pink, and while some people would say pink is a girly color, Ren made it look strong.
On a similarly strange note, as Ren looked at Jaune, he began to notice things he had missed the first time around as well. While Jaune initially had looked meek, it was just the baby fat that had yet to be fully stripped away. Underneath was a strong bone structure, and the blonde hair (that would have certainly made Jaune be teased almost as much as Ren had been teased over his own magenta streak) only served to accentuate the overall look.
Without considering what he was doing, Ren began to lean forward, towards Jaune. The boy looked so meek, and cute, and he just wanted to close the gap and capture his lips in a searing kiss that would certainly last for hou-April fools.
BOOM.
YEAH, I JUST DID THAT.
Okay, so here is the rest of the authors note: Basically, this is about Pheromone dust.
NO IT IS NOT CANCELED SO DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS.
HOWEVER
Pheromone dust is being put on hold until I finish Massages. The reason why is something I cannot explain without spoiling some very important things that I have planned, so please have some patience with me on this one. I know I am not very reliable in terms of updating regularly, but please have some faith in me. I will update it, I will write it, but just not yet.
Until that happens, please leave a review and check out the H'te Rarpee facebook page (Yes it is spelled that way, with the apostrophe.) Like I said up there ^ I will be posting chapter progress updates as well as some other fancy fancy things, so follow/like/whatever and you may be privy to my secret writing techniques.
Until then, ciao! As always, thanks for reading, and I will see you next chapter!
-Rarpee
