Jaune was scarred.

Grimm studies, Remnant history, and combat proficiency had never been this challenging. It was near impossible to take Professors Port, Oobleck, and Goodwitch seriously after seeing them in more...liberal attire...at the pool not too long ago. He was sure he was not the only one suffering this mental onslaught if the thousand-yard stares of almost every fellow freshmen was any indication.

While each student labored through their own therapy, Jaune relied on a trusted remedy from home: his acoustic guitar.

Music filled their dorm room. Relaxing music that brought warm childhood memories to his troubled mind. Strumming the chords, running the same soothing melodies, humming tunes that, in the words of his old man, 'would melt audiences like ice under the sun.'

Pfft. As if he had that charm. No way in hell was anyone swooning over his...

"Jaune?"

Jaune stopped playing. There in the doorway to their dorm stood his partner, fresh from the library with a few loaned books.

"Oh. Hey, Pyrrha."

"That was...that's a nice song."

Cue hand scratching the back of his head. It was a natural tic. "Err, well, it was nothing, really. Just something stupid I came up with..."

"Now, Jaune," Pyrrha sternly countered with her arms planted firmly on her hips, the books replaced on their study desk. "You can't bring yourself down like that. Do you know how many people can play the guitar like you do?"

"Um, a lot?"

"In Beacon, you are the only one I know who has that talent in music."

"Come on, Pyr. You're patronizing..."

"It's true, Jaune. Have you ever paid attention to anyone else in the school?" She sat down beside him on his bed. "If this is a hobby, then you're the only one I know who's the best at it."

Right. Jaune resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He wasn't that good. "You're a celebrity, Pyrrha. I'm sure you've met a lot of people who'd easily bowl me over with a sick lick—"

"Stop right there."

"What? But I—"

"No. Jaune. Enough."

"Enough of what?"

"Are we going to have this conversation again?" she snapped.

"What? No!" Jaune groaned. "Look, I know where you're getting at. And...you're right. X-ray and Vav isn't the only thing I'm a nerd at so..."

She smiled. "See? Don't let yourself down, Jaune. Believe me when I say that you're the best musician I've ever personally met..."

"Okay, now that's unrealistic."

"...and who is also my dearest friend," she added with her hand resting on his shoulder.

Dearest friend? Wow. Jaune beamed. Pridefully. Yeah. She was right. Maybe he did have some charm. Or maybe it was the guitar. He shook his head while chuckling. Yeah, definitely the guitar. "Thanks, Pyr. You're the best."

Pyrrha blushed. She was blushing a lot now. And he was very confident that it was neither the weather nor her monthly cycle (Nora firmly educated him on that). That led to a glaring possibility that his not-so-rational mind consistently denied since the day they formed up as a team: Pyrrha Nikos, the Pyrrha Nikos of Mistral, four-time tournament champion, 'Invincible Girl,' Miss Pumpkin Pete's, his very own partner...

...might actually have a thing for him.

If that was the case, then that would explain everything. Everything.

Jaune felt that thinking about it would be too much to handle so he started strumming, recycling that one melody that he had made up several days ago. It was a nice tune. Soothing. He was humming halfway through when he remembered that he had an audience.

"That's beautiful, Jaune."

"Thanks."

"Do you have a name for it?"

"A name? You mean a title? I...I haven't thought about that."

"It sounds very soothing. Like a lullaby."

"Heh, yeah, I guess so." He shrugged. "I sort of just came up with it whenever I was thinking of home."

"Home." She sounded dreamy. Did she really like it that much? Like, it was just a simple chord progression with a melody that needed some work. "That would be a nice song name, don't you think?"

"Yeah. Home. I think I'll call this one Home. Now to think of some lyrics..."

"If you don't mind..." Pyrrha seemed a bit apprehensive now. "Can you...teach me?"

Jaune blinked. What? "Come again?"

"Can you teach me how to play?"

Oh. Well. That was unexpected. Then again, it made a bit of sense. She was an athlete with few known pastimes. He was a limp noodle with a lot of hobbies. Interestingly, they balanced each other out. The blonde knight paused to think; Pyrrha trained him to fight better. What better to give back than to teach him some tricks of his own?

"Sure! I'd love to."

"O-oh! T-thank you. Um, how do we...?"

"Start?" Jaune smirked. It felt good to be the tutor for once. He handed her his guitar and guided her uneasy hands over it. "This is how you should hold it..."

"Oh. It's a little big."

"Yeah. It's what I got so I rolled with it. A lot of people like it apparently."

"So how do I..."

"Just wrap it around like that...and your fingers go here..."

"Oh! My nails are digging into it. Sorry! Should I clip them?"

"Err...later. Besides, they're not that long so it wouldn't hurt that much."

Nora was frozen in front of the door to their room. With eyes wider than a tarsier, she had planted her head against the varnished oak, listening with rapt attention at what could be the most scandalous thing she had ever heard so far. And from her own team, no less!

"Nora, you're being unreasonable."

"Shhh!"

Ren shrugged. "Let's just knock."

"And interrupt their passionate booping!?" she very nearly screeched.

"You're jumping to conclusions," he argued. "Jaune is only teaching Pyrrha how to play his guitar."

"I'm sure he is," Nora sniggered uncomfortably as she glued herself once again to the door.

Ren sighed. Perhaps it would be better to sit this one out. It was another Nora-ism, after all. Besides, he had done more than enough to preserve the dignity of his fellow bachelor.

"Am I doing it right?"

"The fingerings? Yeah."

"But do I have to hold it so hard? I'm practically squeezing."

"You don't have to grip it so tight. Your hand would get used to it in time."

"And then I...do this?"

"Yeah."

Pyrrha ran held her fingers tight against the fretboard, feeling the uncomfortable coils of the strings press into her calloused fingertips. She carefully brought her right hand down and heard the garbled mess that was her first guitar chord.

"I guess...I screwed that up? Sorry."

Jaune chuckled. "That's fine. There's always a first time for everything."

"You hear that, Ren!?" Nora hissed.

Ren exhaled. "Yes. That was Pyrrha strumming on his guitar."

"That was Pyrrha's foot hitting the real guitar over and over again while her hand's are busy with our fearless leader's GUI-tar!"

The stoic boy shook his head. He was already thinking of a way to diffuse the upcoming misunderstanding from this charade.

"So this is A?"

"Yep."

Pyrrha grimaced as she strained to readjust her fingers to the new formation. "And this is...E?"

Jaune reached over and eased her pinky off the third string. "There. That's E."

She strummed. The chord came out cleaner this time which brought an excited grin on her face. "That sounds nice."

"You're doing great. Now go to D."

'She's going for the D?' mouthed a now visibly perturbed Nora. 'But I thought she was already working the D!'

Ren decided that enough was enough. He grabbed her hand and commenced the arduous task of dragging her down the corridor.

"Re~en! What are you doing?"

Good question. What exactly was he doing? Well, frankly, he was preventing this errant pebble of miscommunication from further snowballing into an avalanche of misunderstanding. How was he doing it? He had no honest idea. "We're going somewhere."

"But we just came from somewhere!"

Think, young man, think! They already had a heavy late afternoon snack. Nora would only doze off in the library without entertainment. They had no classes for the rest of the day. Most of their homework was already turned in (regardless of how other people stereotype a girl like Nora, they completely overlooked the fact that she can be as diligent and apt a student as the best of them) so that left...a walk in the gardens?

"We're taking a walk."

Nora seemed to buy it, at least. "Where to?"

"The gardens."

"You're going to look at butterflies again?"

Maybe. "It's still sunny out. Let's enjoy the warm rays of sunshine while it still lasts."

"Aww, but we can always do that another time!"

"It might rain." Please buy it, please buy it, please buy it—

"... Good point." She then began skipping, yanking his arm up and down so wildly that had it not been for his training and Aura, she would have practically ripped it off. "Come on, Renny! We're going for a walk~ we're going for a walk~ today's the day, hip-hip hooray~! We're going for a walk!"

Jaune could tell that Pyrrha was thoroughly enjoying this impromptu guitar lesson. It made him feel proud for her. Which was a surreal experience given that it usually the other way around but this he knew he would treasure for the rest of his life. He was basically training her!

"Additional practice and you'll get the hang of it," he encouraged.

Pyrrha dipped her head to let her ponytail drape over her scalp. "Thank you, Jaune."

"You now know the three basic chords. In fact, you could make your own song already with just those three."

She beamed back up at him. "You don't have to pander too much."

"Heh, now you're sounding like me."

"I guess I am."

Jaune smiled. Pyrrha smiled back. Wow, this felt really good. Maybe it was the lighting or the warm late afternoon but somehow, he felt something happen. It first started in the pit of his stomach then built up to his throat. He wanted to say something only to be beaten to it by something soft meeting his cheek.

He blinked. Twice. It lasted for four seconds. And already Pyrrha was more bashful than ever. He felt his hand run up to his cheek. Did she just...?

"Um, Pyrrha?"

"Y-yes, Jaune?"

"Can you...can you do that again?"

She gawked at him as though he had grown a third head. "W-what?"

Jaune choked and rebounded. Or tried to. "I mean, I don't...it's not bad...it's just...can you...can you do that again?"

"A-are you sure?" Pyrrha stuttered. "What y-you're asking i-i-is..."

He grimaced. "Yeah. That sounded creepy." But he really wanted her to do it again. Seriously, he got smooched all the time by his sisters; what in all of Remnant made this different? Oh. That's right. He was thinking of her when he was itch-scratching. Shit. He's a pervert. Great.

"Jaune?"

He blinked back to reality. "What?"

"You were spacing out."

"Oh. Sorry."

And that was when he felt it again. Another peck on his other cheek. Pyrrha was quick with it and had already fallen back with a curious expression on her face and one that he could definitely read as 'did you like it?'

He did. He very much did.

"Hey, uh, Pyr?"

"Y-yes?"

Jaune honestly did not know what he was thinking though he was confident that he was not thinking clearly at the time. "Can I try?"

"W-w-what!?"

"My turn. I'd like to try it." And he did.

Pyrrha's protests died on the edge of her tongue because it was already touching Jaune's. She melted instantly.

Jaune, on the other hand, pulled back. Damn. He missed. He was aiming for the cheek. But the lips were good. Yeah. The lips were good. And he was pretty sure they parted because he easily broke through her teeth. He opened his mouth to say something only for his partner to close the gap once again.

His mind began to scream. While half of him was caught in this haze, the other half tried to rationalize what exactly was happening. They were smooching—kissing! They were absolutely not making out. Like making out making out. Nope. They were, uh, practice-kissing. Yeah! Practice-kissing. Because for most of his life, Jaune was at the receiving end of kisses and this was his first time making out—PRACTICE-KISSING!—with his partner.

Yeah. As friends (close friends), they were doing each other favors. They were helping each other out by teaching the other how to do certain things. Pyrrha taught him how to fight. He taught her how to play the guitar. They both knew the other's routine for itch-scratching. Now they were in uncharted territory and learning the ropes as they went.

Perfectly platonic. Yeah...yeah...

Team RWBY stopped dead in their tracks at hearing the unmistakable sounds of a make-out session coming from their sister team's dorm room.

Yang instinctively planted her hands over Ruby's ears but in her panic, she had not registered how hard she was squeezing her little sister's head. Weiss was clearly uncomfortable with the noise but before she could pull her blubbering teammates away, Blake was shoved against the unfortunately unlocked door by her flailing team leader. Caught unawares, the faunus landed flat on her face on the floor of team JNPR's quarters.

"Huh!?"

"Gah!"

Pyrrha rolled off to the side, revealing a disheveled Jaune sunk into the mattress right next to her, his hair messed up, his shirt pulled up to his chest, and a noticeable cactus standing in the middle of a barren desert. Or at least that was what they imagined underneath those obtrusive cargo shorts.

"D-d-do y-you people ever knock!?" the champion weakly snapped, covering up her already covered up bosom. In fact, the only clothing she shed were her shoes and her blazer.

Team RWBY stood agape.

For seven seconds.

Then Jaune looked down and realized that this was not a dream and, yes, there was a great pyramid down there. He looked to his right. Pyrrha was staring. Down. Then up. Then she bolted for the bathroom and locked herself inside. That same humming noise started followed by squeaks and muffled moans. Well. She really wasn't shaving in there.

The blonde knight gulped, slowly gazing back at the four girls of their sister team staring at him wide-eyed and...mortified? No. That would not be the proper term to describe those strange looks they were giving him. And while he could not say that they were afraid, he himself was very well terrified.

Desperately, he combed through his cerebral cortex for his failsafe. Then again, it was hard to imagine Professors Port and Oobleck at the pool without the mental image of Professor Glynda's flawless skin glistening from atop the lifeguard's nest. That and he was gazing back at four clearly paralyzed girls...though Blake's bow was twitching furiously.

Where were Ren and Nora when he needed them?

Mustering up the most of his strength, he asked, "Um...can I use your bathroom?"

"What?"

"Can I use your bathroom?"

Cardin blinked. The rest of team CRDL gawked at their unexpected guest from the inside of their dorm. "Are you serious? What happened to yours?"

"Pyrrha's using it. She's going to take awhile."

"... Is it that time of the month?"

Jaune hesitated. Then shrugged and said tiredly, "Yeah. It almost always is."

Despite his thickheadedness, Cardin was no fool. He called bullshit on that. A roll of tissues in hand? Guy needed to poop. But a poorly concealed tentpole? Arc was lucky he didn't run into Miss Goodwitch (or anyone else for that matter) in the hallway. "Just clean up when you're done."

"Yeah, yeah."

Having reached a surreal understanding, the brawny mace-wielder stepped aside to let the blonde knight through. Russell, Sky, and Dove eyed him step for step until he sealed himself in their lavatory with a resounding click of the lock.

"He's going to jack it," Sky remarked.

"Hundred lien he finally makes out with Nikos," Dove bartered.

"Two hundred," Russell threw down.

"Three on the possibility that they already did and she blocked him tonight," Cardin finalized.

ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: June 30, 2018

LAST EDITED: July 7, 2018

INITIALLY UPLOADED: July 7, 2018