*Author's Note*

First of all, let me apologize for how far between these chapters are. Class has been hell for me, and I find myself with little time to do much besides sleep. To write this chapter, I had to keep awake past curfew a bit, thanks to some Monster and other such energy drinks.

Anyhow, yeah. A lot of you guessed what Jaune was doing. The thing is, this chapter will be from his POV, and will backtrack a bit. We're going to see his side, then watch as Ruby and Yang kill him…

Just kidding. I like Jaune too much to off him. But tension will be created between Jaune and Ruby. 'Tis a necessary evil for advancing their relationship. Anyhow, enjoy chapter 29.

"Oh man, what do I do?"

Jaune was currently pacing about, asking himself this same question for the hundredth time. A few weeks ago, while Ruby was still hospitalized from her freak accident involving Crescent Rose (which, as of late, Jaune had begun to think was not an accident), he had invited Ruby to the Midwinter Ball. There was one major problem though. Jaune could not dance. Well, he could dance, just not the way one would be expected to at a Ball. Indeed, since he was younger, June had enjoyed dancing. But he always felt that ballroom dancing was useless to learn. And now look where we are.

While bemoaning his own stupidity, another student happened to pass by. Velvet Scarletina. A Faunus, she was rather cute. Long, chocolate brown hair. Big, round, and dark eyes that caught many males hearts. And a good figure, complimented by the ultimate symbol of appeal for young males; her Faunus set of bunny ears. Indeed, many males have fantasized about Velvet for her looks and assets, but that's something we need not get into.

As she was walking by, Velvet had noticed Jaune. And I mean noticed. Since coming to Beacon, she's met a lot of racism towards Faunus. There were terrible students, and them there were those like Cardin Winchester and his horrid team. Velvet hated them with a passion that surprised even her. Cardin and his gang always taunted her. Made fun of her and of her Faunus features, namely her ears. But Jaune always rescued her (well, the members of RYAR and NNWB, who were friends of hers, were the ones rescuing, but Velvet's Maiden Vision kind of caused her to ignore the other seven). Add to that Jaune beating down Cardin a couple of weeks ago, and Velvet was smitten with him. Wondering what was up, she went over to him.

"Good morning Jaune, what seems to be the matter?"

"Oh, hey Velvet. It's nothing much." After thinking for a second and sighing, Jaune continued. "Actually, it's something. It's something huge. The Midwinter Ball is coming up, and I was going to go with Ruby."

"So what's the problem?" Velvet asked, with a slight twitch that Jaune seemed not to notice.

"Well, I don't know how to do that type of dancing. Y'know, the slow dancing? I've never really been that good with that kind of stuff." And it's true. Jaune was clumsier than most. Seeing a chance, Velvet made an innocent suggestion.

"I could teach you. How to slow dance, that is."

Looking on her with gratitude plain in his eyes, Jaune accepted Velvet's offer. Every day Jaune met up with Velvet in the retired combat hall. And every day, to music that she would have playing, Velvet would patiently teach him how to dance, step by step. Even with his clumsiness, Velvet could still see Jaune making an effort to improve. Must be nice to be Ruby, she would think. But then, almost immediately, she would discard the thought. She was here dancing with Jaune, not Ruby. She felt guilty, considering how nice Ruby was to her and all. But to Velvet (or rather, all females in general), all is fair in love and war, especially love.

Which brings us to the present. It had been a week since Janie started his dancing lessons with Velvet, and he was improving quickly. Despite being rather clumsy and awkward at first, Jaune's natural talent on dancing began to shine through, and he picked up the steps rather quickly. By now, Jaune was hitting each step, and not Velvet's feet. As he was getting to the end of this session, something suddenly felt amiss. Looking around, Jaune noticed a clump of crimson and a clump of black outside the window. The clumps began to move, and the crimson one was pulling something off of its back. Is that..? No way, it couldn't be, right? I made sure to hide it!

A few seconds later, Jaune's suspicions and fears were confirmed. The red figure pulled out what appeared to be a scythe. Oh shi-!

".Velvet, hit the deck!" While saying so, Jaune himself ducked down at a speed reminiscent of his girlfriend's semblance. A second later, the window exploded and a small object flew right by where his head had been not more than a second ago. Jayne knew the bullets would not be lethal, but he also knew being hit with one would likely put him out of the game for a long while, even with his insane healing rate gotten from his aura.

On her end, Ruby was looking in on June, ready to fire a second round. The only rhi g that stopped her was Blake.

"Ruby, what are you doing?! Do you want to kill them?!"

Amidst tears and sobs, Ruby managed to choke out a response.

"Yes… no… Maybe? I don't… know! But what I… want to know… is why Jaune is here… and dancing with… Velvet!" As Ruby said this all, her tear filled eyes were scoping out her intended target. Her boyfriend, who had betrayed her in what felt like the one of the vilest of possible ways, at least to Ruby.

"Ruby, wait. He may have an explanation!" Trying to calm the younger girl, all Blake could see was that Ruby was growing more and more troubled. After a bit, Ruby just took off, using her semblance. Blake was left by herself, standing in a cloud of rose petals. Looking over to Jaune, Blake felt she needed to have a long talk with him.

Still stunned from what had just happened, Jaune was on the floor, staring at the now shattered window. Through the window came Blake, who without another word, grabbed Jaune by the collar and dragged him with her, all the way back to the dorms. Arriving at RAYR's room, Blake entered to find Yang, Weiss, and Nora. It seems that Ruby had not returned. Bringing Jayne to the center of the room, Blake explained the situation to the other girls. At least, she explained what she knew. And to the surprise of nobody present, Yang's gauntlet roared to life, ready to pummel whomever their master deemed necessary.

"So, Ruby was not good enough for you? You need to find another girl? Huh? You damn playboy!" Yang was about ready to kill Jaune, hurling all sorts of insults and obscenities at him. In fact, were a teacher nearby, Yang would doubtlessly be serving detention until graduation. The only things holding her back were Weiss and Nora. "I told you if you hurt her I'd kill you! Your manhood is done for!"

While Yang continued to threaten Jaune and his manhood, Blake, calm as ever, began to interrogate him.

"Jaune, what exactly was going on? Ruby is your girlfriend, yet you were dancing intimately with another female."

Surrounded by three females who could and would rip his head off, and a fourth who would laugh and smile as she broke his knees, Jayne simply spilled the beans on everything. His inability to dance, Velvet's offer to teach him, and his accepting because he didn't want Ruby to be disappointed in him. Due to the sappy circumstances, Yang seemed to have calmed down a bit. Key word: bit.

"So, why exactly did you hide this? You do know Ruby cares for you a lot."

"Yeah. Despite how much of a dunce she can be, I even feel bad for her. She caught the person she loves with another woman. Even a hopeless fool like you should have known better."

"You played with my baby sister's heart. Even if you didn't mean to, you still hurt my sister. I should kill you for that, but that would upset her further."

As Blake, Weiss, and Yang gave their comments, June felt worse and worse. And then Nora really hit it home.

"Y'know Jaune, Ruby really does love you. And I mean she loves you. She draws you a lot, and she has been practicing cooking some of the things you said that you liked. Not to mention, me and her talk a lot. And you always come up. She talks about you with such warmth that it makes me feel so happy. She's said that she was worried about the upcoming dance, because she wanted to look good and not embarrass you. And she's been obsessing over what you could possibly be doing all week. I mean, you didn't even notice that by doing all of this practice, you were really hurting the one you were trying to please."

Meanwhile, all in attendance were stunned into silence by hearing Nora speak with insight and maturity for the first time since meeting her. No Cheshire grin, Nora was simply being deep. After a second, everyone came back to their senses and Jaune felt worse. Because Nora was right. Because they were right. He had abandoned the girl he loved to make her happy, and ended up hurting her instead. He had to apologize. Getting up to leave, June was suddenly and forcefully grabbed by the hood on his hoodie, and thrown back down.

"And where the hell do you think you're going? We haven't finished our talk."

Yang was cracking her knuckles, in anticipation of their little 'talk.' Jayne was worried, but at the moment, his care for Ruby overshadowed his concern for his own health.

"I'm going to find Ruby and apologize to her!" declared Jayne, to a somewhat taken aback Yang.

"Oh no you're not. My baby sister does not need an insensitive jerk like you for a boyfriend!" With this, Yang was about to kill Jaune. Realizing his options were limited, he sprang towards his bed and grabbed Crocea Mors from beneath his bed. Figuring he was in for a fight before he could search for Ruby, Jaune figured he'd stand a better chance armed.

Seeing the situation unfolding, with Jaune on one knee with his weapon out, and Yang crouched and ready to pummel him, the three girls who were watching decided to intervene. Nora and Weiss again moved to restrain Yang, before she could do anything to stop them. Meanwhile, Blake began to calm Yang down, while Jaune stood there in a defensive position, should Yang get loose.

Finally, with things settling down, the other three girls turned towards Jaune, and gave him an ultimatum; find and apologize to Ruby, or he would be economically ruined, have everything he loves destroyed, and would have his legs broken. Okay, so maybe it wasn't an ultimatum. More like a threat, or a promise. Fearing for his life, and desperately wanting to explain all of this to Ruby, June dashed out of the room looking for his team leader, partner, and girlfriend.

And though he searched everywhere, June could not find Ruby. Returning at night, Ruby was not in the room either. According to Yang, who still held some hostility towards Jaune, she was bunking with NNWB for the night, and would not be returning to the room any time soon. Feeling like crap, June readied himself for bed, hoping to be able to catch Ruby in the morning. No matter what, he had to apologize.

But for the next couple of days, Ruby had avoided him. Every time he so much as caught a glimpse of Ruby, she would disappear in her usual cloud of rose petal. It got to the point where Jaune was starting to feel discouraged. He wanted to explain everything to Ruby. He desperately wanted her to forgive him, more than anything. But he was starting to feel like he would never earn that forgiveness. But Jaune could understand. Kind of.

One of the reasons these two got along so well was because of how similar they were. So June could kind of understand how Ruby feels. Few friends, and difficulty forming relationships with other humans. Her first boyfriend, and she devotes herself to him wholeheartedly. And he goes and dances with another girl. Yeah, he screwed up big time. She was likely extremely sad and confused, and he didn't blame her.

With the Midwinter Ball fast approaching, Jaune felt he was running out of time. While he sought out his date to apologize and beg forgiveness, there were others with their own tasks at hand. Pyrrha plotted to use this situation to win Jaune over at the Midwinter Ball. Velvet was preparing her dress and accessories in an attempt to try and help Jaune forget Ruby. Ruby's heart was in turmoil, she also sought a way to hurt Jaune like he did her. Yang was deciding on how best to make Jaune suffer for what he'd done. And Ren was watching it all, observing as he always did.

And thus, the day had passed, and finally began the morning of the Midwinter Ball. The students of Beacon were dressed for the cold, and the day had been rather chilly. Meanwhile, Jack Frost was not the only thing nipping at Jaune. Unease and guilt gripped his heart, and held him in a vice. His time was running out. He had to find Ruby. He had to.

*Afterword*

Yo, enjoy the chapter? Yeah, I felt I should let Yang kill him. Thankfully, I'm merciful. Either way Jaune messed up. Anyhow, with what I'm thinking, I hate myself. My plans for ending this arc will most likely leave a lot of you hating me, and leave me hating myself. But it's what I have planned. Please, when the next chapter comes out and ends this arc, don't kill me. I still have schooling left to finish. Just know that it will hurt me as much as it will you, if not more, and that I already have plans to rectify swiftly.

Anyhow, if you figured out what my depraved ramblings mean, then I'm sorry. If not, then please look forward to the next chapter. There will be hurt, drama, and some romance. Though, probably not to the extent some of you would like.