World of Bloody Evolution

by Stormshroud

The Grimm have been the predators of Humankind and Faunus since the dawn of time. The Dust has only halted the tide, but has not pushed it back. Jaune Arc discovers his Semblance in his hour of need, and the Grimm will learn to fear their new predator. Yet, he must overcome the madness within his Semblance, lest he become one of those he hunts... AU. Jxmultiple. Cover by Aedevel

36. The Dance

"Do you think Cinder's alright? She hasn't shown up yet." Jaune wondered aloud as he got up from his seat in the dining hall, and offered his hand to Pyrrha.

Pyrrha had shown up in team SABR's dorm-room soon after Cinder had left them, and the red-headed Mistralian Champion had exchanged greetings with the team before asking if they were planning on going to the breakfast or eating in the dorm.

Blake had taken a look at Pyrrha's blush, and then a look at Jaune, and then a look at Pyrrha, and hesitating briefly before the faunus had finally sighed and told Pyrrha that 'Jaune would love to accompany her to the breakfast'.

Before Jaune had managed to ask what was happening, Blake had gotten up and had pushed him towards the red-headed girl, where he realized what Blake had been implying, and he had taken her hand and had offered to accompany Blake to the breakfast.

Unfortunately Blake had not accepted his offer and had instead slapped herself in the face thrice at the same time, a feat that had caused Ruby much amusement while Weiss had wondered how exactly Blake did it, and the black-haired faunus had taken his offered hand and pushed it against Pyrrha's, causing the pair to hold hands and Pyrrha to turn bright red again.

Only then did he realize that she wanted him to accompany Pyrrha to the breakfast, so he nodded knowingly to Blake and asked if she, Ruby and Weiss wanted to come as well.

He managed to dodge the ball of blanket-yarn that Blake had thrown at him, and escorted (or more accurately fled with) Pyrrha towards the dining hall, ignoring the odd emotions that rang from Cinder's dorm-room's direction while violently hissing Blake followed in hot pursuit with Ruby following Blake out of habit, and Weiss, presumably not wanting to be left out, had followed Ruby.

Yang had then peeked out of RYNN's dorm, and chased after Ruby, followed by Nora, who was presumably chasing Pyrrha, and finally Ren, who was chasing after Nora, soon after which Nora started to follow Ren and the two of them got lost fairly quickly afterwards.

Jaune was slightly bothered by Cinder's absence though- he had assumed that Cinder was assuming that they would go and have breakfast, which meant that by staying in her room she was trying to signal that she wasn't feeling well, if he guessed correctly. Jaune made a mental note to get some breakfast for Cinder as well, since her current poor health was more or less his fault.

"Cinder?" Pyrrha asked, her voice oddly unconcerned. "Is she feeling unwell?"

Pyrrha had been in a happy daze ever since their escape from the dorm, and she hadn't let go of his hand even during their breakfast (something which had made actually eating slightly harder, although she had let go of his hand after letting out a quiet 'aww...' sound after he had pointed that out).

Blake was rolling her eyes on the other side of the table, and Ruby was visibly trying not to poke Pyrrha's cheek to see if she was 'all there'. Not that Weiss would let her, as she was sitting right next to the silver-eyed girl, ready to intercept Ruby should she try her luck.

"She… seemed unwell." Weiss told Pyrrha. "Jaune, are you sure you didn't do anything inappropriate to her when you two trained?"

"What? No!" Jaune denied perhaps a bit too quickly, which caused Weiss to give him a doubtful look. "Er… well, something might have happened, but it was resolved, and Cinder wanted that I didn't tell anyone about it."

"Could it possibly be what's causing her ill health?" Weiss asked, and Jaune could feel the underlying edge in her words. "I won't have my team members maul each other to infirmary condition just before our first actual missions. Missions that might end up being actually dangerous. I would have expected you to know that without me needing to tell you."

"S-sorry."

"Am. I. Clear?" Weiss added, putting pressure on her words to make her message go through.

"Yes, ma'am."

"Very good." she smiled slightly at Jaune's crisp response as the two teams got up and left the dining hall after Jaune had fetched a pre-packaged meal for Cinder- or rather, the two teams attempted to leave the dining hall.

It seemed that their departure would lengthen however as they were intercepted at the exit by two unknown students.

By the looks of them, neither were from Vale, and by their actions it seemed that they were either transfer students or didn't care about the rumors that surrounded the two teams as the other students were still giving them a wide berth.

"Hey there beautiful. I'm Sun Wukong and this is Neptune Vasilias." the straw-blonde haired faunus boy introduced themselves to Blake who was walking on the edge of the group. "We heard there was going to be a dance later this afternoon, want to…"

"No." Blake said simply before moving to walk right beside Jaune. She placed her hand on his forearm as his hands were occupied- holding Pyrrha's hand with one and carrying Cinder's breakfast on other.

Sun was left blinking in confusion at Blake's cold response, but it seemed that his friend, a boy with blue hair and yellow goggles, wasn't disheartened by Sun getting shot down.

"Please excuse Sun, he gets over his head occasionally. Must be those abs rising to his head." Neptune joked to Weiss while smiling at her. Weiss nodded back politely, but she didn't seem to be overly amused by Neptune's joke.

'I wonder what are those two trying to do?' Jaune wondered as the two other boys kept walking with the group. '...I guess I shouldn't complain. We haven't had much contact with other students outside team RYNN so I guess it's just positive thing that some of the students are feeling comfortable enough to approach us. Those rumors did not help our reputation around here…'

Neptune was chatting with Weiss whose demeanor had turned a bit more polite as she had learned that the two boys were transfer students from Vacuo, and Sun was still trying to strike up conversation with Blake. The blonde-haired faunus wasn't having too much success though as Blake just kept sending Jaune undecipherable looks.

Sun's conversation attempts didn't seem to stop however, and neither did the odd looks Blake sent him.

Jaune tried to tilt his head to ask Blake what was wrong non-verbally as somehow he got a feeling that asking it aloud would be a mistake, but the message either got lost in the translation or didn't reach Blake as she just sighed.

It seemed that his cluelessness caused Blake to boil over as she sighed before turning towards Sun and begrudgingly joining his previously one-sided conversation while letting go of Jaune's forearm.

.

..

…

"So… what did the transfer students want?" Jaune asked Blake as they arrived to the dorms. Weiss had told them that she didn't have a real plan after breakfast so they'd be free to just hang around until it would be time to start getting ready for the dance- which left them with few hours to spend as they wanted.

Jaune had left Cinder's breakfast beside her door and knocked on it, not wanting to disturb her by entering if she was sleeping. The food was heat-wrapped anyway so it wouldn't get cold for hours.

Blake seemed to be gearing to go to the library while Ruby had fired up a game on a tv-slash-computer that she had set up on shelf in front of the dorm's window. Weiss had been somewhat intrigued by it, and had chosen to sit down beside Ruby and ask if she could play as well, soon followed by Yang who had spotted the game and wanted to play against tag team of Weiss and Ruby.

Pyrrha had decided to join them as well after Yang had challenged Pyrrha to a match, and before long Weiss's and Ruby's two-player game had turned into a four-player one, much to Weiss's annoyance if the way she scrunched her face was any indication. Or it might have been just because Yang was currently pressing her considerable bust against Weiss's cheek while trying to reach the controller.

Jaune however focused his attention on the black-clad faunus girl who hadn't seemed all too interested in the game, and was instead heading out of the dorm. She lifted her eyebrow at him, and he repeated his earlier question. "Er… So, what'd Sun want?"

"Why do you care?" Blake answered his question somewhat bitterly, and Jaune realized that he had wronged the cat faunus somehow, even if he didn't know how. Before he got a chance to ask what was wrong, she had turned around and left the room.

He took a quick look at the other four girls in the room who apparently hadn't noticed Blake's departure as they were absorbed in their game. "Girls? I'll be in the library if you need me."

"Righty-o, have fun reading with Blake!" Ruby turned to wave at him energetically, and he nodded gratefully at her before turning to chase after Blake.

---

"Blake?" Jaune called to otherwise empty library.

His departure had been delayed by him spotting Cinder who had left her dorm carrying a large trash bag, and he had offered to carry the bag to a bin after she had given him a somewhat weak smile and had tried to push past him. He couldn't let her strain herself though, not when she looked so weak, so after a bit of arguing he had managed to procure the oddly sweet-smelling bag and haul it to a big half-underground trash bin just outside the dorm. Unfortunately however he realized too late that he was getting sidetracked, and headed towards the library.

It seemed that the students had fled the library as the dance loomed closer, leaving the otherwise somewhat busy hall-like room eerily empty. He flared his Semblance briefly to sense people around him, and found a presence that he assumed to be Blake.

He found her reading alone in one of the more secluded reading spots.

The comfy, stuffed leather relaxation couch she was sitting on seemed to almost completely engulf her while she lounged on it. He took a quick look at the title she was reading, a book called 'Psychology of Herbs', which he assumed was some book she had picked up from the nearest shelf and was using just to appear like she was reading.

Which meant that there was something bothering her.

"Hi." he greeted her and sat down on the other end of the couch. "...Want to talk?"

"..." Blake was quiet, but reacted enough to turn a page on her book.

"So… The dance is coming. Are you excited?" Jaune tried to look for a neutral conversation subject, but it seemed that his casual words hit something as Blake turned to glare at him over her book.

"You know, I'm not good at wordless communication. Ironic, I know, since I have the emotion-radar-thing." he said after a while. "I know that something is troubling you, and that I'm not the go-to guy to clear relationship troubles, but can you give me a chance?"

Blake sighed and put her book down on her chest. "It's Sun."

'Sun? Isn't that the faunus transfer student? ...Don't tell me he's bothering her?' Jaune blinked, before he repeated his thoughts aloud.

Blake just glared at him. "Are you aware that he asked me out just now?"

"Huh?" Jaune paused. "Wait, when?"

"He was waiting just outside the dorms, and asked me out as soon as I left." Blake glared at him. "I guess he didn't get the clue that I wasn't interested when we walked from the dining hall to the dorms, and certain someone didn't help me to persuade him to leave me alone."

"...Wait, I thought he was just... " Jaune started to realize what Sun had wanted earlier. "He was asking you out?"

"..." Blake just glared at him in a way that made him think that it should have been obvious. And it had likely been as well, but he had just managed to miss it regardless.

"I… I'm sorry." Jaune said. "I should have helped you get rid of him."

"...Do you even feel anything towards me? You just… stood there while some other boy was literally hitting on me!" Blake hissed at him.

"I didn't realize he was trying to ask you out!" Jaune told her. "I… I wouldn't have let him do that to you if I did!"

"Really now… He just walks to me, says 'hey beautiful' and then starts to ask me somewhere. You didn't realize that he was hitting on me?" Blake huffed while lifting herself up from the couch. The book she was 'reading' was put back to a nearby shelf, and she turned away from him.

"Well, you're beautiful so I didn't think that it was a bad thing that he noticed it as well, but I didn't realize that he was trying to ask you out." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment.

"Y- you don't exactly sound convincing. I expected you to be at least a bit jealous, you know…" Blake blushed and turned around to face him but kept glaring at him.

'Oh.' Jaune thought as he stood up as well. 'Wait, does she expect me to do something here? ...Somehow I don't think just saying 'sorry' will help, I'll have to think of something else.'

He felt as a third person entered the library, and although he was only using his Semblance-born ability to sense human presence passively, he could guess who the person was without needing to activate the ability properly. After all, if Sun had waited for Blake outside the dorm, it wouldn't be a wild guess to assume that he'd follow Blake to the library as well after he had given Blake enough time to cool down after his latest attempt to get her attention. It was likely that it'd take Sun at least few minutes to find them though, as the faunus boy likely didn't have a Semblance that could pinpoint the locations of people from far away.

Regardless, Jaune could tell that he was running out of time and he braced himself. 'I… I guess it's time to deploy cheesy lines from that romance book I read… I just hope I won't end up making things worse.'

"Blake." he lowered his voice slightly as he approached her.

"Hm?"

He put his hands on her hips, and for a moment it seemed that Blake would slap them away but in the end she just crossed her arms and waited.

'So far so good…' "If I knew, I wouldn't have let him come anywhere near you." he whispered to her ear. "You're mine, and I am yours."

"Cheesy." Blake commented but didn't pull away, so he closed instead and kissed her neck. "What about the other girls?"

"Ah… I… um… They're mine… er, ours as well." He said after a moment of fumbling his words.

"Cocky and cheesy." Blake said dryly while pulling away from his reach and slapping his hands away as he tried to step closer to her. "Are you reading those lines from some cheesy romance book?"

'Crap, she caught me!' "I- Well… uh… maybe?"

"You know, at this point I can already tell what type of person you are. And a cheesy casanova is not it." Blake glared at him, this time with clear hurt in her eyes. "Why won't you try telling me the truth for once?"

"I… Well, I don't want to lose you." Jaune told her honestly, realizing that he shouldn't try to pretend when a wave of displeasure from Blake crashed against his mind. "But I know I'm not really good at these kinds of situations so I thought I'd try to be something I thought you'd expect me to be…"

"Stupid." Blake's words came instantly, and Jaune flinched.

Blake turned around and walked up to him, surprising him as he had half-expected Blake to just walk away again. "I didn't… I didn't fall for some cheesy casanova. I fell for a boy who, despite being tormented by his past and his very ability, and who lost most of his family, always tried his best to make everyone around him happy no matter what. Even some ex-terrorist, who was stupid and thought she was doing good when all she did was cause ruin…"

"You're not like that." Jaune interrupted Blake, causing her to shrug.

"Maybe. But that's not the point." Blake glared at him. "Can you stop pretending to be something you are not, or is that too much to ask?"

"Sorry… I just thought it was uh… well, appropriate, I guess." Jaune apologized. "I don't really know what to do here so I tried to copy something that I thought worked."

"You do know that you didn't have to pretend, right? I didn't fall for some fictionary storybook casanova, I fell for you. I won't hold it against you if you fumble as long as you are honest with me." she said before taking his hands in hers. "I guess I'm being a bit unreasonable as well since I was expecting you to realize what was going on when Sun was trying to court me. I mean… I could have just made our relationship more obvious to him. Or said something. But I expected you to take care of him, to realize what was going on. I..."

"Blake…"

"I wanted to make you jealous." she confessed. "I know it was a bit stupid, but… I sort of wanted to see how you'd react to me being courted by someone else."

"Well… If you honestly wanted to be with someone else, I wouldn't stop you." Jaune told her after a small pause, which caused Blake's eyes to widen and shoot up to meet his. "I don't want to be someone who tells you who you can speak to, and who you can't. But… If someone tried to force you, I wouldn't stand by and watch. He'd have to deal with me. Both me, and…M͝e̵̢͜."

His eyes flashed glowing red as he added the last bit, and he pushed the Shadow down as it rose to challenge him. Surprisingly it didn't struggle against his control as much as it did normally, which told Jaune that their goals had aligned for once.

'Does it have a possessive streak? Gah… Still, that wasn't a good idea.' Jaune blinked as he fought down the increasing nausea and focused his attention back on the girl in front of him.

"I like you, and Ruby, and Pyrrha. All of you" he told her as Blake was quiet. "You deserve someone who loves you, and you alone. But if you're happy with… well, with the arrangement we have, I'm not going to give up. And that won't change."

"What about Weiss?" Blake's eyes narrowed in suspicion, and she pulled away from him.

"I… I haven't told you, but it's complicated. I haven't figured it out by yet either." Jaune told her. He knew that he was cheating by using the after-echo of his Semblance activation to gauge Blake's emotional state- and realize that she likely knew more about his situation with Weiss than she told him. Which likely meant that Weiss had told her about his… about the Shadow's infatuation with the ex-heiress. "The Shadow, it sort of likes Weiss. I'm… just not sure how deep it runs, or why it does that since… well, it's been behaving oddly recently. Don't worry though, I'll tell you if something happens with it."

"Haah… Well, I did tell you that I want to know if your harem is about to grow." Blake sighed while thumping her palm against his chest. Jaune had a feeling Blake was joking, but he didn't want to test his luck. "But fine. If you find how deep that 'infatuation' runs, let me know first, alright?"

"...Yeah." Jaune promised. "If you promise to me that you'll be more direct with me- I am not good at picking up your wordless signals, and I don't want either of us to get hurt because of miscommunication."

"I… Yeah, I can promise that." Blake said quietly, almost as if she was suddenly feeling ashamed. "...You know, I didn't expect you to come clean with me about Weiss."

"Why is that?"

"...Just call it a hunch. Still, thanks. For being honest with me."

"..So, are we good?"

"We're good. For now." Blake told him while leaning towards him. "I promise that I'll try to be a bit more... direct with my messages, if you promise that you'll try to stop being something you're not in the future, and continue being honest with me."

"That I can promise." Jaune said.

"And in the spirit of that… there's one thing that's bothering me. About our relationship." Blake bit her lip and looked up at him while coming closer. She reached to pull off her bow and let her cat-ears free. "Do you... dislike faunus?"

"Wait, where's this coming from?" he asked, completely taken off-guard by her question.

"Well, so far all uh… 'physical interaction' we've had has been initiated by me. All of it. You didn't even react when I almost… almost..." Blake gulped, and continued somewhat nervously. "I almost… You know what I almost did. After the Vale town square incident."

"Yeah." Jaune blushed as he remembered when Blake started to play with his 'tools', before she got interrupted by Pyrrha the morning after Weiss was attacked during her speech in Vale.

Blake sighed before continuing. "Right. I had… I have a feeling that you aren't trying to communicate anything by not initiating anything physical with me… but the lack of any initiative from your part was why I wanted to see if I could make you jealous. I thought… maybe you weren't as interested in me as I was in you. That the arrangement we have is just to make us- me, Pyrrha and Ruby 'happy', regardless of what you felt towards us. Maybe you didn't like my… well… 'faunus parts'. I heard that not many humans like them, and it made me uncertain... I couldn't figure any of that out… I couldn't figure out what you wanted, and I didn't like it. I wanted that uncertainty to stop."

She paused to take a breath and she continued with slightly shaky voice. "That act of yours earlier… it hurt, you know. It hurt because you essentially told me that you'd need to put up an act in order to bring yourself to touch me."

"Ah." Jaune realized. "No! It wasn't because of that! …I just kinda thought… that you know…"

"What?" Blake asked.

"I thought you wouldn't like that kind of attention." Jaune confessed. "I mean, back when uh… this arrangement started, when my sisters got you and Pyrrha drunk…"

"Don't remind me of that…" Blake groaned, but motioned for him to continue.

"Well, we promised that we'd take it slow, so I didn't want to push the… how'd you call it, 'physical interaction' further." he told her. "I… Well… The thought might have passed by me few times, but I didn't want to go too fast, and I didn't know how the Shadow would react if I tried to do something… uh, more physical. I doubt it wouldn't be too hard to control, since I noticed that happy emotions seem to nullify big part from its urge to hunt, but I didn't want to risk losing control of it should I get distracted when taking the lead."

"I see. That makes sense at least. Having one's partner turn into a hostile Grimm through a kiss or something might not be a good thing." Blake said before she let out a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a frustrated groan. "...Well, can you tell me when you're ready?"

"I… don't know when I'd be ready to go all the way through, exactly." Jaune blushed. "I mean, my control over the Shadow has been improving recently, but I'd need to test it too. Just step by step. A bit at a time."

"Are you saying what I'm thinking you're saying?" Blake's eyes widened slightly.

"I mean, if you… uh… want to… you know." Jaune felt his face lighting bright red as he realized what he was implying. "And you don't mind me being your partner…"

"...We're dating, you know. And yeah, I'd like to, just be careful." Blake warned while she blushed as well. "I'll try to keep my guard up as well, but uh… take it slow."

"Ah." Jaune felt slightly light-headed as he took her hands and pulled her closer. 'So… this is happening.'

Blake just stood still, and he tied his arms around her back, pulling her against him.

He cheated again by reaching into his ability very, very carefully to further sense what Blake was feeling- seeking for emotions that would indicate uneasiness, disgust, or some other emotion that would tell him that he was doing something wrong as he pushed his forehead against the girl's, and then kissed her.

'...So far so good.' he thought as Blake didn't reject his embrace, and instead she tied her hands behind her back and leaned into the kiss, giving him the lead completely.

He felt as a foreign presence he knew to be Sun closed towards their little spot in the library, and a vindictive, possessive thought entered his head. He could feel the slight buzz from the Shadow, brought out by the negativity, but he was able to push it off before it could take hold. 'Well then… that guy was hitting on Blake. Let's let him know that she's taken, yeah?'

His hold around her shoulders tightened and his hands roamed down her back to stroke her hip, and he pulled her off her feet with his other hand that had tied itself around her waist. The black-haired girl's eyes widened, but she didn't try to get out of his embrace nor did she break the kiss that had turned from innocent touch of lips to something far less innocent.

"Mhh… H- haah… J- Jaune?" Blake asked between the kisses, no doubt taken off-guard by the sudden intensity of the touch. Her amber eyes were wide as he brought her to the leather couch she had been reading in, and he sat down on it so that she was riding on his lap.

He felt surprise from the girl, but Jaune sighed in relief internally as she didn't seem to dislike his actions- and while he was getting more and more excited as he touched her, the intensity of that emotion was somehow amplified even further by him feeling the emotions, once muddled and faint but now far more clear, radiating from Blake and washing against him.

She let out a groan-like breath against his skin as he pulled her against him and let his hands dig under her shirt.

His body felt feverishly hot and hers felt cool to touch, making him want to touch her more, feel her more, c̡on͠s̵u̸m̕e her more… and he froze as he felt the Shadow rising once again to challenge him.

'...I won't. I refuse.' Jaune thought as he suppressed the Shadow as much as he could by focusing solely on the girl on his lap. It made him feel vulnerable as he had gotten used to passively monitoring his surroundings, but he ignored the feeling in order to further intensify the emotions coming from the black-haired faunus, and he touched Blake more to bring forth the pleasant emotions- both to feel them, and to use them to push against his inner daemon.

As a result he felt her on more levels than mere touch- he could sense the way she reacted to his kiss, to his touch, the feeling of embarrassment inside her turning to want, and then to lust. He could use the emotions trace the spots that would make her feel it even more, and so he did.

Blake let out a muffled gasp as she felt the touch, breaking off the kiss and exposing her neck which he picked as his next target- not that she disliked, if the way she wrapped her arm around the back of his head and pulled him closer was any indication. Or the way she began rubbing her body against his, or the way she guided his hand to her breast while her emotions felt like a sun to his inner 'eyes'...

"Hey Blake! I got us some fizzy drinks so wanna talk about the dan… ce... " A energetic male voice coming from near the bookshelves faded into silence, and Jaune looked over Blake's shoulder to see Sun standing beside one of the bookshelves. The boy was looking at the pair with his mouth hanging open, and a bag containing two bottles of some green drink slipped off his hand.

'Oh yeah, he was coming here… I completely forgot.' Jaune blinked as in the brief time he had spent kissing Blake he had forgotten the outside world- although he wasn't the only one.

"Haa...?" Blake blinked hazily at Sun, and Jaune could tell that she had forgotten and Jaune were making out in a very much public place as she kept grinding her hips against his, wanting for the caress to continue even during Sun's interruption. Before she managed to regain enough of her senses to realize what was happening, or what she was doing, Jaune took hold of her cheek and turned her back towards him and resumed their kiss- this time parting her lips and invading her mouth.

A wet, erotic moan escaped her lips as the kiss deepened and intensified while her cat-ears were perked upright, although one of them was twitching ever so slightly almost as if it was begging to be played with..

"Wait, you were a faunus too! I mean… Uh… Well, since you guys... "

"Ah! ... D-don't shtop..." she moaned as Jaune started to pet one of her cat-ears while running his free hand down his back before pulling her closer by the back of her waist.

"...Y-you guys seem to be kinda busy removing each other's tonsils so I'll…"

"Ha… Mwah… J-Jhaune… t-that feels... "

"...I guess… I'll be going now! Sorry for disturbing!" Sun bolted away from the secluded reading spot, and Jaune could practically feel the depression flooding from him in waves. He quickly shunted his emotion-radar as he felt the negativity coming from the fleeing boy. 'I… I kinda feel bad for him now… but… well… he had it coming.'

Blake tied her hands around the back of his neck and tied her legs around his waist, and it was enough to push the thought of the faunus transfer student out of his head, and the two of them lost themselves completely in each other's embrace.

---

"Sheesh! Where have you two been?" Weiss berated as she finished tying her hair and fitting her high-heeled dance shoes. "Don't tell me you two somehow got into 'the mood to train' and started to whack eachother senseless just before the dance just as you did with Cinder?!"

"...Sorry." Jaune rubbed the back of his neck sheepily while his face was scarlet red from embarrassment and his clothes were crumpled.

"We… We were reading a book." Blake came to his aid, her face flushed and hair so tussled that it wouldn't be a long shot to guess that she had put her head in a washing machine.

"And you ended up looking like that?!"

"It was a very good book."

Jaune and Blake had arrived to the dorm after spending time in the library- although what had felt like few minutes but had been revealed to be almost four hours spent either reading on the comfortable couch, or doing something else entirely on it.

Blake looking slightly overwhelmed still as their snogging session had repeated itself few times during their time in the library, and Jaune rubbed his neck unconsciously as the hickey marks he had received were still tingling on his skin, although the physical evidence of them had already disappeared thanks to his Semblance.

Blake let go of Jaune's hand, the two of them having held hands all the way from the library where Jaune's alarm clock set two and half hours before the dance had broken them out of what had been their fourth snogging session (and also reminded Blake that her shirt had somehow fallen off her shoulders during it and she was wearing only her sports bra under it).

Luckily though (at least if their showing up to the dance was concerned) their snogging hadn't gone further than really, really intensive kissing and petting, but it had still taken a while for the both of them to return back to the real world after their little excursion on the clouds.

"Fine, whatever. Just start getting ready for the dance!" Weiss shooed them apart, which caused Jaune to blink in confusion.

"Isn't the dance starting in… two hours? Why are you in such hurry?" Jaune asked, which caused Weiss to send him a evil glare while Blake just sighed and Ruby, who was currently eating chips and watching television while sitting on beanbag chair she had procured from who-knows-where, just shrugged.

"I don't know either." She told him after gulping down a mouthful of potato chips, and offering the bag towards him. "Snack?"

"Thanks." Jaune smiled as he took few and sat down beside her, beckoning for Blake to come as well.

Blake looked at his extended hand for a second before she sat down, and Ruby offered her snacks at Blake as well.

"Blake, you smell weird." Ruby commented, which caused Blake to go from faint blush to brilliant scarlet in an instant.

"Ineedtogoandwashmyface." the faunus girl said before she practically teleported from her seat to the bathroom, kicking Weiss out in the process.

.

..

...

"I've been thinking." Blake said as she finished her own preparations for the dance.

"What's up?" Ruby adjusted her red dress and tilted her head at the faunus who reached for her bow which she had tied around her cat-ears.

"I'm going to go to the dance without my bow." Blake said quietly, causing Ruby to blink, Weiss to pause her combing of her hair and Jaune to turn towards the black-haired girl.

"Why?" Ruby asked. "I mean weren't you trying to keep your… well… thingy hidden?"

"My faunus nature. But yes." Blake corrected Ruby. "However I've… well… I've realized that I don't want to live a lie anymore. Not when I'm expecting honesty from people around me at the same time."

Jaune blinked. 'Wait, is she referring to our earlier talk?'

"...Uh, but..." Ruby tilted her head. "I mean, we all know that you're a faunus and it doesn't matter to us?"

"That's why I have the courage to come forth with my nature." Blake smiled at Ruby. Ruby walked to the cat faunus and begun patting Blake's head.

"Nope, no fever." Ruby said as Blake lifted her eyebrow at the silver-eyed girl. "I mean, you don't smile, like, ever, so… "

"I… don't smile?" Blake seemed mortified.

"Nope." Jaune said from the background where he was helping Weiss by holding up a mirror for her as she did something to her hair. "Not often at least. Sometimes yes."

"Oh." Blake sighed. "I didn't realize that I was presenting so moody appearance."

"Its alright, we've become used to it." Ruby reassured Blake, which didn't seem to help. "A-anyway, about your bow…"

"The bow also makes my ears scratchy and its uncomfortable." Blake said matter-of-factly. The fact that her left cat-ear twitched ever so slightly reinforced her point. However it didn't prepare her for when Ruby reached to grab Blake's cat-ear and she began rubbing it.

"H-hey! That's inappropr… ah!"

"Whoa, it must be really scratchy! They're really sweaty and kinda tangled." Ruby said as she kept rubbing and scratching Blake's ears, either not aware of the effect it had on Blake or deciding to ignore it.

"Nh… Nhya!"

Weiss paused to take a look at the pair and for a moment it looked like she'd go and stop Ruby, but she opted to just sigh instead.

"Er… Ruby? Blake?" Jaune tried to come to Blake's rescue as the girl had started to shake and twitch and she had blushed a brilliant shade of red. And Jaune could tell even without his Semblance that the black-haired faunus was really feeling the petting. "Huh, it must be all that experience Ruby received from petting Zwei all those years…"

His words seemed to break through to Blake and she pulled her head back and out of Ruby's reach. "S-stop! That's bad in more ways than one!"

"Can you two stop goofing around and get ready for the dance?" Weiss growled at the two girls.

"Y-yeah, you're right." Blake just sighed in relief as she spotted the escape route that Weiss was offering and turned towards the bathroom. "Excuse me. I'll have to go… uh... groom my ears."

"Good! Now… wait, what?" Weiss's thoughts seemed to grind into halt as she tried to process what she'd heard, which gave Blake ample opportunity to slip past the ex-heiress and claim the bathroom for herself. "Wait! I need to finish my makeup!"

---

The dance opened with a greeting from team TAPE, followed by a brief speech from Ozpin (which was promptly ignored in favor of getting drinks), and after that it was time for the dance to start properly as a band hired for the occasion fired up their first song of the night.

The dance itself was a somewhat confusing mix of Jaune trying to dance with each of his 'dates' at equal measure, which seemed to work well enough although oddly enough Jaune felt that he was being watched the entire time, and he could have sworn that he had seen a pair of brilliant green eyes looking at him through the crowd occasionally, often accompanied by a flash of orange hair.

Cinder had joined the group alongside team RYNN, although Cinder's arm still bore a bandage (even though it was far lighter and more compact than it had been, not to mention that she had apparently gotten her wound checked since it wasn't bleeding anymore). Nevertheless she had opted to steer clear of the dance floor, and her mood wasn't the best possible- perhaps because of her injury preventing her from dancing, or perhaps because none of the boys had mustered the courage to ask her for a dance in the first place- which might have something to do with the fact that she looked like she was going to kill the first one who asked.

Ren had led team RYNN in a synchronized dance spectacle which had garnered them a lot of positive attention, and afterwards Nora had drawn Ren to a dance while Yang had disappeared into the crowd of dancers that had flooded the dance floor after Ren's spectacle had ended.

Pyrrha had been flocked by her fans amongst the students almost immediately afterwards- she had managed to stay somewhat under the radar before their team's dance, but her luck had ended. Jaune had noticed that and had gone to grab a dance from her which seemed to deter the crowd a little, specifically when Pyrrha had kissed his cheek lightly. He had vacated the area as the hostility towards him had risen to new spheres amongst her fan club, and Pyrrha had used that chance to slip away- demonstrating that Blake's lessons had not gone to waste on her, even if it left Jaune taking the brunt of the mental assault.

Meanwhile Blake had been cornered by Sun who had gone to ask her for a dance as soon as he'd seen Pyrrha kiss Jaune, but before Jaune had managed to disengage from the hostile fan club to intercept the money faunus, Blake had slapped Sun and stomped away with her face red from anger. She had promptly taken his hands and led him to the dance floor without saying anything, and after a moment of slow dance her mood had improved and her face had gained a light smirk which grown into a full-blown smile when Jaune had kissed the back of her hand after their dance.

The calm was much needed as he had been forced to bite his tongue more than once to break through the chittering haze that the Shadow was forcing over his consciousness as a result of the increasing hostility, and he drained strength (metaphorically speaking) from Blake's good mood after the dance to keep himself in check.

He had pulled Ruby aside as she had looked somewhat miserable standing alone in the crowd with a small punch glass in her hand after talking with Ozpin, and the two of them had shared a dance in one of the more secluded balconies which had cheered Ruby up immensely since apparently she hadn't managed to find dance partners or people to mingle with after her initial dance with Jaune during the start of the party, outside of a certain girl from Atlas.

Ruby told him that she had met with Penny who she had gotten along with fairly well as the two of them had gotten a chance to talk, but Penny had excused herself telling that she had a mission to complete and the ginger-haired girl had left Ruby after apologizing profusely (and promising to meet her again). She had not found much success in her attempts to mingle or dance with the other partygoers after that.

Since Jaune had been forced to use his Semblance to regenerate three of his toes during his dance with Ruby he had a fairly good hunch as to why Ruby was unable to find dance partners- her lightweight Dust-alloy reinforced combat-boots weren't the best possible dance shoes, specifically when Ruby wasn't all too familiar with dancing and tended to step on her partner's toes if she got too excited. Not that he minded, he needed some pain to anchor himself back to reality amongst the cacophony of emotions (even if it made him wonder if the rumors circulating the Beacon about him being some sort of masochist held at leasts partial truth).

The red-clad girl's silver eyes helped to clear his mind though, even it would have worked better if Ruby had kept an eye contact with him for longer than few seconds- she tended to look away while blushing cutely whenever their eyes met.

He had somehow managed to dance with Weiss briefly as she had surprised him by coming to ask him for a dance, and Ruby had gone to fetch some punch while the two of them danced- although his dance with Weiss ended slightly abruptly as she stepped on his toes five times in a row, and then politely excused herself to go dance with Ruby as she returned with the drinks.

Jaune noticed that Neptune had approached Weiss for a dance after her and Ruby's dance had taken a break (which she was using to recover both mentally and physically from dancing with Ruby for few minutes). The white-haired girl had shared a very brief dance with the blue-haired transfer student before excusing herself, and letting somewhat happy-looking Neptune go cheer up Sun who had started to chug down copious amounts of (luckily alcohol-free) punch with red slap mark decorating his cheek.

Jaune had masked the tinge of jealousy the Shadow had bubbled up after seeing Weiss dance with Neptune by offering to dance with Cinder, who had politely refused while not meeting his eyes for some reason.

The feelings of frustration and anger that had radiated from Cinder had caused him to vacate her presence before he got the chance to ask if something was wrong since he didn't trust the Shadow not to get too excited over the negative feelings, but her unhappy state of mind stayed to nag him for the rest of the dance.

By the time Yang cornered him the dance had gone for hours and Jaune was starting to feel tired both mentally and physically- which was a feeling many of the other dancers seemed to share since the dances had started to go from energetic dancing to more slower-paced ones.

"Feel like dancing?" Yang asked playfully as she grabbed Jaune by his tie and dragged him into her arms before starting to lead him away from the dance floor, which he figured was kind of opposite as to how things were supposed to play out normally, but he went with it anyway. "Nice evening, eh? I kind of wanted a different band, but hey, this one played pretty nicely as well. Too bad people are starting to fall asleep on their two feet."

"Aren't you're full of energy." Jaune snarked as they danced. "I'm not used to dancing, I guess it's starting to take its toll on me."

"Oh, it's affecting me as well, but it's just nice to get out and party a bit. I haven't been able to do this for a long time since the headmaster house-arrested our teams." Yang scowled, but her bad mood passed soon enough as she spotted Ruby dancing again with Weiss- or rather, Ruby trying her hardest to dance while not stepping on Weiss's toes while all the while Weiss was trying her hardest to avoid get her toes stomped on by Ruby's 'dance-boots'. Neither of them seemed to it mind their somewhat clumsy dance though, if their expressions were anything to go by, and it looked like Weiss had already become somewhat proficient in her newly-unlocked ability to dodge while dancing.

"Heh, it's nice that Ruby is having fun." Yang chuckled as the pair disappeared from their view

"Yeah..."

"Speaking of which, we haven't been speaking much recently. Well, since we started to spar together anyway." Yang turned back towards Jaune, and her dance soon moved them out of the crowd and towards the more private balconies. "One might get an impression that you're trying to avoid me?"

"Avoid you? No way!" Jaune denied as he tried to wonder what Yang was planning. "Aren't you the one following Ruby and I whenever we go out?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Yang said while trying her hardest to not look like she'd been caught with her hand in a cookie jar. Jaune lifter his eyebrow at her, and she shrugged playfully. "I admit, Ruby does that better."

"Haah… Well, its not like I have anything against you following us around."

"That's nice to hear."

"You could join us if you wanted, you know?" Jaune tilted his head at her, and felt the need to clarify as Yang balked at him. "I mean, doesn't it get lonely to follow us alone, not that I was uh… implying anything?"

"Nah, I'm good. Just wanted to see how you two are doing, which leads to my next question- How's it going with Rubaby?" she asked as she paused and withdrew from the dance, and Jaune saw that she had led him to one of the balconies that overlooked towards the Emerald forest. There were few partygoers mingling on the balconies next to and above them (although it looked like few of the partygoers were doing something else than just talking…), but it was as quiet and secluded as one could get without leaving the party- and he had to admit that the crisp nightly air was nice when compared to the air inside the ball room.

"Ah! We… We are dating. Its going good, I think." Jaune said as he remembered that he was supposed to be saying something, so he defaulted to his standard response. It didn't seem to help much since Yang lifted her eyebrow at him. "I mean, well… I think so at least."

"Uh huh. What about your two other 'partners'?" Yang asked while crossing her arms. "Just call this a sisterly interrogation." she added as Jaune lifted an eyebrow at her in return.

"Well, it is complicated." Jaune said. "We're kind of taking it slow. This situation is pretty unexpected, for all of us, but we hope that it will work out."

"A bland, standard-issue statement." Yang's tone turned more serious. "I'd like it if you were a bit more specific though. Are you really interested in Ruby?"

"Uh… yeah, I am."

"Uh huh?" she lifted her eyebrow at his response, and Jaune felt that Yang wasn't impressed by it.

"I like Ruby." Jaune repeated. 'Really, why does Yang need me to say it aloud? She's been following us for what, a week? Surely she knows this by now…'

"I am not a drill sergeant, you don't have to repeat to get a passing grade." Yang said as she gave him a undecipherable look, before sighing heavily and taking his hands again, almost as she was planning to resume their dance.

Jaune felt slightly confused by it, but he went along nevertheless- until what should have been the first few steps of a dance turned into anything but as Yang pushed herself against him and tied her hands around his neck.

He got a brief glimpse of brilliant yellow hair and burning violet eyes before something soft touched his lips.

'W… wait, what is happening?' Jaune could only stand in dumbstruck silence as Yang lifted her leg and tied it around his waist while kissing him and pulling his head down to meet her lips. 'Oh no, is this happening again?'

His mouth parted to ask what she was doing, and she took the chance to deepen the kiss while guiding his hand to touch her sizeable breasts.

"Are you really after Ruby?" She asked as she pulled her lips apart from his enough to speak, but he felt her lips brush against his as she talked. "Or are you actually after me?"

"A- wait? What?" The words that Jaune might have had were lost as Yang's question sank in. 'Wait, does Yang think that I'm after her? But how'd… I'm dating Ruby!'

"I… I might be willing to give you a chance. But you'll have to pick. Me, or her. You won't have both." Yang told him while lifting his head to look at him. Her breasts pushed against his chest, and her hot breath washed over him. She guided one of his hands to grip her thigh that was lifted to rub against his waist. "Which one will you choose? Ruby's a bit nerdy, you could have me instead… If you just say yes. I don't mind if you have other partners either, you can keep Blake and Pyrrha. I don't judge."

'Wait.' Jaune blinked. 'Something doesn't add up.'

Just as Yang was closing again, presumably to kiss him, he pulled his hand away from her thigh, and put his hand over her mouth.

Yang's eyes widened, but she didn't push further, almost as if she was waiting for something. An answer, presumably. 'S… something tells me that if I say 'let's just start as friends' it is going to get me killed… so...'

"I'm… I'm sorry."

Her eyes widened slightly more.

"I'm sorry but I'll… I'll havetosayno!"

"Mbrgh?"

"I mean, I'm sorry but I can't return your feelings." Jaune stammered nervously. "I won't… I won't leave Ruby."

Yang's eyes softened and she pulled his hand off her mouth.

"I… I'm okay if you don't want to talk to me after this but… I'd still kind of want to be on friendly terms with you…" Jaune was about to continue, but Yang put her hand over his mouth in turn.

"Shush. You pass." Yang said with tone far happier than it should have been. "Congrats!"

"Huh?"

"Don't take this the wrong way. I'm not telling you that I won't be looking after the two… er, four of you." Yang told him, ignoring his confusion. "But at least I know that Ruby won't get replaced by just any pretty hussy who's willing to throw themselves on you with a condition to kick Ruby off."

"Wait, you… You thought that I'd leave Ruby?"

"Partly. Shush, it'll make sense in the end." Yant told him while her expression turned a bit more serious, and Jaune waited for her to continue. "Just… Don't judge me too harshly, okay?"

"Okay, I'll bite. What's this about?" He asked finally as Yang seemed to wait for something. "Something makes you think that I'll fall for you and leave Ruby?"

"Did you know, back in Signal, a lot of guys wanted to become Ruby's friends." Yang told him while turning away from him and straightening her dress, and Jaune looked down to see that their brief but intense physical 'confrontation' had left his suit in equally crumpled condition.

"Er… so… Ruby had lots of friends? Was that a bad thing?" Jaune asked as he tried to straighten his suit.

"Oh, but she didn't have many friends. You see, most of those boys were her friends for one reason… I was her big sister." Yang said somewhat bitterly. "Do you know how it must have felt? That someone was pretending to be their friend only to get closer to their hot, attractive, and popular sister? Ruby must have been miserable. No, scratch that, she was miserable back then."

"That's…"

"Oh, I know. But the real question is, what happened, and why? I am awesome, and that garners a lot of interest from the male population. That's the root of the problem, I guess." Yang said as she turned around to face him. "I've had to turn down a few boys in Beacon already. But the Signal… it was far worse. I had confessions every day. In the end the boys realized that they couldn't approach me directly, so they went through Ruby- to get to know me. And as soon as the chance came, they all jumped from Ruby to me… leaving her behind like a roadside pebble if I gave them the slightest bit of attention. The ones that hurt Ruby by doing so deliberately, I beat up. The ones who I accidentally charmed, the ones who legitimately wanted to be Ruby's friends but couldn't help but to fall for me… I gave them a date. Few of the good ones I even kissed on the cheek. I think those were the ones that hurt Ruby the most. None of them passed my little test though."

She shrugged and turned away from him "In retrospect it was not a good idea to give them any attention at all, since all it did was encourage more of them to try it, and to hurt Ruby in the process, but back then I wasn't well versed in teenage psychology. By the time I realized that… it was too late already. I… I didn't want to hurt her, but I didn't want for her to be used either. The girls weren't much better either- they became jealous of me, and knew that I was very protective of Ruby, even if I didn't know how to best protect her. That led to them hurting Ruby in order to hurt me- even more so when I started to break noses in revenge."

"So… All that was a test?" Jaune asked, feeling annoyed. "To see if I would just ditch Ruby?"

"Yep." Yang shrugged her shoulders. "If you had told me yes, then I'd have dropped you instantly like you would have dropped Ruby… and also thrown you off this balcony as well. But you didn't, so we're good."

"I wouldn't do that, you know." Jaune denied vehemently. "I wouldn't leave Ruby.I don't want to make her, or anyone sad!"

"And what if your decision would make someone sad regardless?" Yang asked. "What if I was actually a teeny, tiny bit interested in you?"

"Er… I'd have to ask Blake, Pyrrha and Ruby…" he reared back almost as if he had stepped on a living snake. 'Is she actually interested in me?'

"Don't you dare finish that sentence."

"No, ma'am."

"Haah…. and you were doing so well too." Yang sighed. "It looks like I'll have to look after you all still."

"I wasn't going to dump Ruby!"

"And what if I wasn't interested in your… arrangement?"

"I… I don't know. But I wouldn't dump Ruby!"

"And we're at an impasse again." Yang told him while tapping her feet against the balcony. "Me, or Ruby. Which one will you choose?"

"This is also a test, right?" Jaune asked just to be sure.

"Maybe?" Yang asked in return while poking her tongue at him in a very unladylike manner.

"In that case… I'd have to tell you that I'm sorry, but I won't leave Ruby." Jaune said after a moment of thought, although only thing he had needed to actually think about was how to deliver the news in a way that wouldn't leave him as a stain on the ground, or hurt Yang's feelings. "Not... even for you. I'm sorry. I'd ask Ruby to see if she had an idea to change your mind though. Either to not fall for me, or for..."

"For 'introducing' me into your secret under-blanket society?" Yang finished his sentence for him. "I'll have to go with a 'no' on that one. I'm not into a sister-on-sister, that'd be too weird. Even compared to your tentacle-Grimm-Semblance-things."

"You should meet my sisters and tell them that…" Jaune sighed, but didn't repeat it as Yang lifted her eyebrow.

However before he managed to say anything to further the conversation Yang had once again surged forth, and had pushed her chest against him. This time however she had her own hands behind her back, and he was keeping his very close to his own waist.

"But regarding to your concerns, and this time for realsies…" She looked at him with her violet eyes, and smirked in a confident manner. "Well, I can't say that I'm not slightly intrigued about what the whole fuss is about with you, but I won't get in the way of Ruby's first real romance. Specifically when the boy she's interested in is apparently someone even I could approve of."

"Er… thanks? Just no more testing like that, okay?"

"I'll promise that as long as you just keep your hands and other things where they belong until Ruby is ready for it?" Yang asked, although it felt more like a polite request than a threat this time. "I've said that to you before, but it can't hurt to remind you. She's new to this- vulnerable, and I won't forgive you if you end up hurting her."

"I won't." Jaune told her- but glared at her as she smiled. "Aren't you the one trying to hurt her right now? You know how Ruby would react if she knew you were doing this... again."

"Better that she be hurt now than later." Yang's eyes hardened as well. "With you having what's basically a harem, I have the right to worry about Ruby- Imagine how much it would hurt her if she learned that you'd drop her for someone like me? After all that's happened before? Plus, your… willingness to take new partners is making me worry for Ruby."

"...Point, but I wouldn't hurt Ruby like that."

"Your earlier responses weren't exactly convincing, so excuse me for wanting to find out for sure. The pattern was there, even if it was a long shot."

"...I suppose. I have a feeling you're not telling me everything though" Jaune still felt a bit suspicious from the way Yang was behaving. 'I mean, I haven't shown that much interest in her, and we haven't interacted all that much, so her thinking I might be going for her seems a bit stretched…'

"Weeeellll…." Yang turned around while holding her hands behind her back. "I might have done that also to see if you'd have the spine to reject someone as well. Don't get me wrong, I heard from Pyrrha that you wanted to make everyone happy with your dating schemes and with that thing you have going on with her, Blake and Ruby, but I also wanted to see what you'd do if you were presented with a situation where you didn't have the choice to just add plus one to your harem- and if you were unable to do that, I also wanted to see if I could help you grow enough spine to do so. I don't want you to become someone who can be pushed around by anyone who has a pair of tits."

"Uh…"

"You can thank me when you feel like it~"

"...Thanks?"Jaune wasn't sure if he should be grateful for Yang's 'assistance', but he went for the safe answer.

"Atta boy. Just remember, no hussies." Yang reached to pat his shoulder. "But I think I can hold you to that now. Just holler for me a bit more often when you want to train hand-to-hand combat skills. It's rude to leave a girl waiting, you know?"

"I'll try to remember that." Jaune said while he sighed in relief internally.

"You'd better, or I'll remind you." Yang said with a smirking. "I have a xiao-long memory."

Jaune blinked. "...It started again?"

"It'll pass." Yang rolled her eyes at him as she turned to walk out of the balcony and back to the dance floor. "Try not to get too dazzled by the brilliance of my puns in the meanwhile, will you?"

"Heh…" Jaune turned towards the forest and leaned against the decorated balcony railing. "I'll keep that in mind."

Yang reached to pat his head playfully before walking away.

He was fairly sure that Yang would likely be partying until the late hours, and chances were that there would need to be forces beyond those found in Beacon to get her out before the party would finally wind down and disband.

'Yeah… I'm not really meant to be amongst that cacophony of emotions and smells.'

Jaune sighed as he breathed in the fresh nightly air. He was lucky that the emotions in the party had been largely positive ones, but even so the flood of them made him somewhat uncomfortable, not to mention whenever there had been pockets of negativity within the crowd he had gone dangerously close to the edge of his control over the Shadow. He barely knew anyone involved in the party, outside teams RYNN and SABR anyway, which didn't help his attempt either as there was no emotional bond to the other students- making it frighteningly easy to just equate them to mere statistics, measured by their value in nutrition to him...

"So…" A weak, somewhat muffled voice came from behind him and broke him off his increasingly disturbing thoughts, and Jaune turned to see Ruby standing behind him on the balcony.

He was about to greet her, but he stopped as he noticed that Ruby was keeping his distance to him- and that something was wrong.

Ruby's energetic mood had disappeared, and her usually lively silver-eyes were dull and lifeless, sending wave of ice down his chest- this time separately from the ever-present freezing sensation whenever she looked at him.

"Ruby?" Jaune asked carefully as the girl seemed to be lost for words. However his calling her name seemed to clear whatever mental block she might have had, and she took a shaky breath. "Is everything alright?"

"Ha… haha… Yes… yes, everything is back to normal now." Ruby's voice was somewhat high-pitched. "I saw you two, you know."

Jaune paused. 'Wait, me and Yang? But… Oh no.'

"I should have figured that this was too good to be real, you know?" she continued with the same unusual voice. "That I'd actually have someone who'd be interested in me, and wouldn't hop to Yang as soon as she offered. Well… it… it was fun while it lasted, but I should have seen this coming. She gave you her offer, didn't she?"

"Ruby, wait!"

"I… I like you, you know. For realsies." Ruby shook from head to toe. "I mean… I know I'm not match for Yang, so I don't begrudge you for your decision but… I'd like if we could still be friends?"

"Ruby, I told her no!" Jaune reached to grab Ruby's hand before she managed to escape, knowing that once she used her Speed he wouldn't be able to catch up and he needed to shake her out of her misconception before anything happened.

"Yang told me about what had happened previously." Jaune tried to find words that would help defuse the situation. "About… what she did to you by accident. She wanted to test me, and I refused her."

Ruby looked at him. Her eyes were still dull, lifeless, but she didn't try to get away. "Are you saying that just to make me happy?"

"No! It's the truth!" Jaune told her vehemently. "We can go to Yang and ask if you want, but I swear I am not going to 'hop over' to Yang like the boys she told me about!"

Ruby's mouth opened, but nothing came out of it.

"I swear that." Jaune reached to take both of her hands in his and he held them together.

"If… If that's the truth… then that's the first time it's happened…" Ruby looked up at him almost as if she was seeing him for the first time.

"It was a test. I passed. Just think about it, why'd I want to 'swap' to Yang?" Jaune tried to reason. "I like you, and we're dating, and our personalities match a-and…"

Ruby's head tilted to the side as he talked, and her eyes seemed to regain a sliver of her normal liveliness. "Are you… Are you saying you chose me over Yang?"

"Yes!"

"R-really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you, Ruby!" Jaune despaired, and to his relief it seemed that he was starting to get through to her as she blinked.

"But I thought… I thought that it had happened again…" Ruby muttered shakily. "I… I didn't think Yang would do that, she told me that… but… You two kissed, you know, mouth to mouth, and she had never done that to those that approached her through me so…"

Jaune opened his mouth and closed it again as he recalled what Blake had told him. 'Is… is this one of those occasions where words won't work?'

'Well… here goes nothing…' he thought before he leaned forwards and kissed Ruby, causing her to freeze still. 'Wet?'

He pulled back as he noticed that there was something oddly moist on her face and he discovered that Ruby was crying.

"R-Rub… Oof!" Jaune tried to apologize but was interrupted as Ruby broke off her daze and practically crash-tackled him.

"I… I got so scared…" she sobbed against his chest. He drew her closer and engulfed her in hug, despite getting tears and snot all over his suit. "I… I thought that… I'm sorry!"

"Shh, it's alright. It's alright." he muttered as Ruby vented. "I doubt Yang had planned for you to see that. She never intended to 'seduce' me, she was just testing me- checking if I would leave you for her. It was just a test, and she wouldn't have gone out with me even if I said yes, but I imagine she would have beaten me to a pulp if I had done that. She wanted to see if I could reject someone, and so I showed her."

"I… I feel so stupid now. I shouldn't have gotten so worried." Ruby sniffed. "It just… It just happened with everyone else, almost all of my friends… I guess I hadn't gotten over that as well as I thought I did."

"Ruby, I…"

"Shush…" Ruby pushed her forehead against his chest. "Remember when I told Blake that I wouldn't lose to her?"

"Back when you walked on me and Blake having a shower a long time ago?" Jaune asked.

"Y-yeah, that… Well, I won't lose to Yang either!" Ruby begun as a stammer, but her voice gained a measure of confidence as she declared her resolution. "I won't lose to her either! And you won't lose to her either!"

"Er… Ruby, it wasn't all about that though…"

"Or… Uh, do you think Yang would be interested in sharing?" Ruby blinked as she seemed to realize something. "Come to think of it, why hadn't I thought about that earlier?"

"I… I don't think she'd be keen on that idea." Jaune couldn't help but stare at her dumbfounded as she tilted her head curiously at him while wiping her tears. "A- and weren't you supposed to not lose to Yang?"

"I'm not losing if we all win!"

He felt ready to give up as Ruby's excited voice rang in his ears. 'At least the missions are starting tomorrow so I get a break from all this… I'm not made for relationship triangles… or whatever relationship geometry this is.'

'I wonder what kind of a mission we are going to pick?' Jaune very deliberately steered his thoughts away from the issue at hand to give himself a breather as he offered his hand to Ruby who had started to compensate for her earlier sadness by getting over-excited about the idea of introducing Yang into the… relationship... they were having.

'This is a harem. isn't it?' Jaune thought with a internal sigh. 'I had no idea these could happen… I wonder what mom and dad would say if they saw me now?'

He realized where his thoughts were going so he moved on from the subject before he made himself sad. The dance was supposed to be a happy occasion, so he offered his hand to Ruby. "Wanna go and have one more dance before the party winds down?"

Ruby took one look at him, and took his hand while giggling slightly. "Sure… But we need to get your suit cleared first."

"Huh?" he looked down and saw that the front of his suit was practically dripping wet from her tears, and covered in snot. 'Wait, did all of this come from Ruby? Just how much liquid does she have in that body?' "Uh…"

"Uh… Sorry..." Ruby offered before she seemed to get an idea- which was a very dangerous thing since she was practically bursting with energy now that her earlier panic had passed (which told him that she was still feeling the adrenaline from it, and she would likely stay in her overdrive until the surge winded down and she'd crash). "Hey, stay here, and I'll go wipe off your suit. Just let me take it off and then run to the bathroom to clean it!"

"W-wait! It doesn't work that w- aargh!" 'Oh, here we go again…'

…

'You'd think that they would leave him alone during events like these.' Cinder sighed as she looked out of a large window. She had been observing the Knight ever since the start of the dance party, looking for changes in his behaviour.

The yellow-haired brute's advance on him hadn't gone unnoticed by her either. '...Although that only made me realize that I know next to nothing about him- and without a reference point it is incredibly hard to spot different behaviour.'

She felt somewhat sick in her stomach as she let the thick red curtain slip through her fingers and she turned to walk away from a large window which overlooked a certain balcony where the Knight was getting forcibly undressed by the silver-eyed girl after what had appeared to be, curiously enough, a emotional burst or perhaps some sort of confession. 'Still... Can't those hussies restrain themselves even for a single moment?'

Cinder shook her head as she realized that she was again getting off-track. She was starting to get more and more worried about that as the time went on, since she could swear that she had not been so unfocused in the past.

She had also noticed that she had started to unconsciously rub the back of her neck whenever she was deep in thought, and occasionally she felt oddly… empty. Like there was something missing from her but she couldn't put her finger on it, or why the emptiness gave her a strange sense of fear that turned relief whenever she thought about it and realized that there was nothing where there was supposed to be something. 'I wonder if the removal of that parasitic thing affected me mentally as well? I can't overlook that possibility, not after all that happened yesterday. The Gift shouldn't affect me this way if it was removed, it was completely blank creature specifically made for me and only me… It's only been few hours since the removal so perhaps I'm just feeling the after-effects of it, but I need to document this and get it to mother, just in case my mental state degrades even further- or in the worst case scenario, deteriorates to the level where I can't give my report to her in person anymore...'

Cinder sighed as her next objective came clear. She needed to convince her 'team leader' to take a mission which would take them close to where she had stationed Mercury and Emerald, and then either have them 'kidnap' her, 'get captured' by the White Fang who those two had been sent to assist, or find some other way to disappear in a way that would let her return to Beacon at later date- after her mother had checked her over, and given her a new Gift.

'I don't look forwards to her ire though, she must be furious at my failure…' Cinder bit her lip as she thought about the reception she might receive after returning with the bad news. 'Nevertheless, first things first. I need to link up with Emerald and Mercury. Those two are in Mountain Glenn, so a mission in or near that area will get me out of here. It also gives me a good opportunity to watch over the White Fang operation there and send them off while I depart towards mother's…'

"Are you enjoying the dance, miss Fall?"

Cinder nearly jumped out of her skin as she heard the very distinctive voice of Beacon's headmaster behind her. "Ah, yes. Yes, I am. It is…"

"Hm, hm… I hope your injury is not harming your experience?" Ozpin asked casually as Cinder turned towards him. "Considering how quickly we tend to heal after light wounds, having a wound that warrants such prolonged bandaging must be quite dire… I hope you were not attacked?"

"Ah, no, not at all. I got hurt during off-school training. I merely want to ensure proper healing before my first mission… our first mission as a team." 'Dammit, not now! Don't get distracted now!'

"And you were wounded from…"

"A training exercise with mr. Arc caused the wound unfortunately." she said while looking pointedly over Ozpin's shoulder. "Ah, it seems that one of my teammates is looking for me! Excuse me…"

Cinder hastily made an excuse and left the headmaster standing alone with his ever-present coffee mug. 'I really, really don't want to talk to him when I'm suffering from… whatever this is…'

She felt like crying, if she was being honest to herself, but she fought through that unfamiliar urge as she concentrated on her goal.

---

"Nh…. I'm sleepy… Couldn't we pick the missions in the afternoon?" Ruby whined as she walked alongside the gathered group consisting of team SABR, RYNN and Cinder towards the hall where they had been welcomed to Beacon- which primarily served to distribute available low-priority missions to the students and assignment-free Hunters.

Out of the entire group only Weiss looked somewhat well-rested, followed closely by Pyrrha who had very static expression likely to mask her desire to yawn. Outside those two the group looked like something straight out of a bad zombie movie, which might have something to do with the dance stretching until late night and them having to wake up before the first light of dawn.

Ruby had been extremely drowsy as she had completely crashed soon after her and Jaune's last dance had ended, and Jaune had carried the sleepy girl to the dorm. Weiss and Blake had joined them soon afterwards, and Blake had taken one look at Ruby who was sleeping in her own bed, still clad in her dress, and the black-haired faunus had pulled Ruby down after waking her up. Blake then told Jaune that she'd help undress and bathe Ruby before returning her to her bed, and Ruby had blinked sleepily to agree. Weiss had offered to help, and Blake had given Weiss an extremely suspicious look before locking the bathroom door after her for some reason.

Jaune had lifted an eyebrow at Weiss who looked ready to faint as she trembled on the spot with face mixed between annoyance and embarrassment, but Weiss wasn't in the mood to explain as she had left their dorm to go shower in Cinder's dorm room.

Jaune had slept alone, although the nightmare that had plagued him the night before didn't return- however he didn't get all that much sleep anyway since apparently the first-year's sets of missions would become available for picking at 6. AM the day after the dance, and since two teams couldn't take the same mission, Weiss had shaken them out of their beds half hour before the missions became available so they'd have the best chance to pick out a good mission.

Weiss's decision, while it made sense, had however caused much complaining from Ruby and Blake mainly because of the early hour, and Jaune had departed to wake Cinder up during the fuss.

The flame-caster had been taken off-guard by the early wake-up as well, and it had taken Jaune three sets of knocks on her door to get her to open it. He didn't want to enter her dorm-room without her permission since Cinder's room was somewhat private, and he was fairly sure that entering someone's room without a permission might be considered rude, specifically so if the occupant was of opposite gender and likely either lightly dressed or completely undressed.

Fortunately waking team RYNN had been fairly painless affair since Ren apparently had the same idea, although they had set their alarms slightly later. Jaune had however gotten a sleepy hug from Pyrrha who was dressed in her usual oversized men's shirt she used as a pajama. He could have lived without the cheer and whistle Yang gave them though.

Nevertheless the groups had made their way to the welcome hall after dressing themselves and taking morning showers, which had caused Weiss to become increasingly nervous until they reached the hall as she had started to worry if they were going to be late.

Fortunately there weren't all that many teams waiting for the mission board to become active, so Weiss's fears that they would be left with some crap mission seemed unfounded.

"So… Let's dive in." the white-haired girl sighed in relief as team SABR stepped in front of one of the holographic mission boards, and waved at team RYNN that walked to stand in front of the mission board next to them. "Look for a good mission and drag it in front of me. We'll pick a selection and then pick one from those…"

"What are we looking for?" Jaune asked as he glanced at the small mission description texts floating freely in the holographic screen, and he swiped his hand curiously at one.

The description expanded from his touch, and he could read the entire mission goal, expected opposition and gathered intel relating to it. "Huh, neat."

"Something interesting." Weiss answered half-heartedly while she was reading a mission description she had in front of her. "Preferably against Grimm. There are a mix of criminal investigations, guard duties and other missions in addition to the usual extermination and scout missions, but I feel that our team's strength doesn't lie in investigation- or in any role which requires interaction with the general public."

"I see." Jaune nodded as Weiss had a definite point. "I imagine I'd be dead weight in a investigation mission."

"As long as your emotion radar is as good as you advertise it to be you would be very useful in investigation." Blake noted quietly. "Having what's basically an empath would be hugely advantageous, but I doubt it would be the best use for your ability."

"Quite so." Weiss agreed cordially while swiping at a mission description. "Exterminate a sizeable Beowolf pack and kill their Alpha near one of the villages that border Vale?"

"Probably too easy." Ruby said while she focused on the description in front of her while scrunching her face cutely.. "There's like, twenty Beowolves max so it'd be over in a flash. I'd like for our first missions to be a bit more… I don't know, exciting?"

"I guess 'help the Huntsmen to cultivate Grimm population in Emerald Forest' is out as well?" Jaune asked while pointing at one of the missions he had in front of him.

"I… I think these missions are specifically picked to be as easy as possible." Blake said as she looked at her collection of descriptions suspiciously. "'Escort a passenger train' - or travel to one of the coast villages near Vale in a train and come back with return trip. 'Escort a plane flight to Mistral' - same but between two kingdoms. 'Help a team of Hunters to eliminate Grimm presence near Vale's city wall.'- tag along as real hunters kill the Grimm."

"Uhhh… Sounds boring." Ruby complained. "Isn't there like, badass missions where we go and kill hundred thousand Grimm or drive off bandings and save a village from certain death?"

"I doubt those missions are posted to first year hunter-in-training team's mission board, and I doubt those kinds of messages make it to mission boards at all." Jaune commented darkly as Ruby's comment hit too close to home, causing the girl to flush pale and start to whimper.

"I'm sorry…"

"It's alright. You're excited, I get it." He shook his head and Ruby looked down sadly.

"Way to kill the mood." Blake sighed as she went through few other missions.

"Hmm." Cinder hummed from the background

Ruby let out a squeak as the voice of their new team-member entered the conversation, and Jaune looked over the red-hooded girl to see Cinder going through few of the missions. It looked like the presence of their fifth member had slipped off everyone's minds as the team turned to look at Cinder who smirked at Ruby.

"Well, if first-year missions are a bit too dull, I have a proposition." Cinder said as she pushed the group of blue holographic mission slips away, and lifted her Scroll to touch the light-made screen.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked politely as Cinder typed something on her Scroll, and the holographic screen switched from blue to red, before switching back to blue.

"I seem to still have my second-year team leader codes for mission selection." Cinder said while smirking. "I have unlocked second year's missions for us, if you are interested in something more challenging than sitting in a train or watching someone haul fish in the coast."

"Ooh, disrupt Grimm presence near Vale-Mistral border, redirect Grimm movement in western Vale, assist deep sea exploration vessels to clear submarine Grimm near Vale's coast…" Ruby read the mission descriptions that had appeared in front of her. "These sound really interesting!"

"While I would agree, I would also like to note that these have been picked from the available requests with second-year students in mind." Cinder smirked as the team started to go through the missions, although this time with far more enthusiasm. "If we are to pick one of them up, I would like to have a significant say in the selection- after all, I am the only second-year in our group."

"Makes sense." Jaune nodded as he thought about it. "I mean, how do you even redirect Grimm movements? I thought that Hunters just went and killed Grimm."

"With explosives to terraform their path into something that leads away from settlements and using your team as bait to draw them off their intended targets and towards less populated areas." Cinder answered easily. "Sometimes the Grimm pack is too big to hunt directly without suffering losses, and Hunters need to focus on their own survival as well since dead Hunters can't protect anyone- after all, as far as the government is concerned, losing an entire minor settlement is preferable to losing a full team of Hunters."

"That's... " Ruby pulled herself away from the mission board, and Jaune took a look at her to see that she was pale. "That's horrible…"

"It's our job to make sure both survive, but sometimes we must make difficult decisions." Cinder said while shrugging, unaware of the impact her words had on Jaune, and Weiss nodded hesitantly while she looked back and forth between him and the crimson-clad woman.

"I've been told that as well." The white-haired girl said quietly as Ruby turned to look at her almost as if she was begging Weiss to say that what Cinder told them wasn't true.

"I… I don't get it." Ruby said while turning away from them and going back to scrolling through the missions.

Cinder lifted her now-healed hand to stall Jaune before he could move towards Ruby. "She'll understand eventually if she wants to become a Hunter as well. You'll just harm her if you intervene now."

"...Fine." Jaune sighed, wanting to change the subject as it really started to annoy him, and he didn't like himself when he was angry. 'So according to her, even if there were hunters around they wouldn't have come to help Shion back when it was attacked by Raven's bandits... '

"What kind of mission would you suggest for us, then?" Weiss took a look at Jaune's expression before she asked Cinder, no doubt recognizing that he wasn't in the best possible mood.

Those seemed to be the magic words however as Cinder gave Weiss a cheshire-cat grin, which made him uneasy. "Well, I have thought about it, and there is a mission that takes place near Mountain Glenn..."

Thum. Thummm.

Thum.

Hum hum.

Here we go.

'Ere we go. 'Ere we go.

Next chapter- soon(™), but not as late(™) as before.