A/N:
Hi friends!
Welcome back to RWBY: The Selection. Coming at you today with another one of Jaune's dates featuring the Bees and a pun war (of course)
Shoutout to Six02 for their stellar reviews! I'm sorry about the random bouts of anxiety D: but I'm glad you found these last chapters sweet :D There's definitely some more good, cute, occasionally-sad-but-by-and-large-very-shippable Arkos moments to come, so hold onto your seat :D. And Weiss... is Weiss XD
Once again, please review with any thoughts/comments/questions/concerns/anything else that strikes your fancy!
Enjoy!
Chapter 39: Yang
The date card arrived at eight in the morning, a mere five minutes after Yang had rolled out of bed, thrown on her pajamas, and sauntered into the Women's Room, sleep-gunk still clouding her eyes.
"Someone had a late night," Blake noted as Yang walked in.
She shrugged. "I fell asleep on the couch. You left me!"
"Yeah, at three in the morning," Blake smirked, "I tried to wake you up when the movie ended and everyone left, but all I got was…" she feigned snoring noises, and Yang threw a pillow at her face, grinning.
"Wow!" Penny beamed. "By the sound of it, you had a very fun girls night!"
"Eh, it was alright," Yang shrugged. In actuality, the night wasn't half bed. She had spent most of it sprawled out on Blake's lap, making puns and watching the dark-haired girl roll her amber eyes and groan loudly. She didn't want to give too much of that away to the rest of the girls though. As Professor Goodwitch had explained, the penalty for being with anyone other than the Prince in that way was death. Besides, she didn't even know if Blake liked her in that way. They were both technically competing for Prince Jaune's heart. In her mind, Yang knew that Blake was probably too busy crushing on the prince to even notice her, and that there was really no point in continuing to flirt. But in her heart, Yang couldn't help herself. "Anyway, how was the date?"
"Oh, it was splendid!" Penny exclaimed.
"We got to hit tiny balls with miniature hammers," Nora grinned.
"Golf clubs," corrected Pyrrha, "and... it was really nice." She bit her lip as blush flooded her cheeks, and Yang saw Weiss's fists clench.
"Any advice for those of us who haven't gone yet?" Velvet asked, her leg bouncing up and down. Coco put a hand on her thigh to slow her anxiety.
"I suppose... just be yourself," Pyrrha smiled. A knock came to the door, and Pyrrha, once again, answered it.
A hush fell over the room as Pyrrha returned with the date card. Yang leaned over to her sister, who was rubbing her hands together in excitement. "If we're on this one together, wanna bring our weapons and shake things up?"
"Yang!" Ruby hissed, and Yang held up her hands defensively. "I always bring my weapon…"
"Velvet, Ciel, Blake, Yang, and Emerald," Pyrrha read, "Roses are red, violets are blue, perhaps the only thing more beautiful than the botanical gardens is the five of you,"
Yang groaned. Puns were one thing. Poetry was something else altogether…
Pyrrha turned over the date card. "Meet me at the back doors of the palace at nine-o'clock," she read, and then smiled. "I guess that's the last group date of this week."
Instead of turning to the five girls on the card, everyone turned to Weiss and Ruby. Since they had been invited to neither of the two group dates, they must've been the ones who had made a good enough impression to win one-on-one dates with the Prince. Weiss smirked, but Ruby just raised an eyebrow at Yang. Yang raised one back, winking at her sister. She was sad she wouldn't have Ruby to keep her from falling into boredom on this date, but at least she'd have Blake…
After changing out of her pajamas and into something more 'date-like', Yang bounded downstairs to join the other four girls. Prince Jaune stood beside them, grinning when she approached. "Lady Yang," he smiled. Yang winked. She had yet to have an actual conversation with the prince, but she knew that he had let her in despite her absolute joke of an application, so he had to at least be kind of cool.
"Put it here," she announced, holding out her fist. Jaune's face lit up as he punched it, completing the fistbump. Out of the corner of her, Yang saw Blake roll her eyes. She grinned.
"Ladies, if you'll follow me," Jaune gestured them forward, leading them out of the castle, across the sparkling, purple courtyard, and into a stunning grove of flowers. Velvet's eyes grew to the size of dinner plates, and several of the girls gasped in awe at the beautiful garden, butterflies flittering and fluttering around them.
To his merit, although it was a group date, Jaune tried his best to give everyone equal time. He exchanged a few sarcastic jokes with Emerald as they walked past the daisies, tried (rather painfully) to keep a conversation with Ciel as they passed a row of tulips, and, as they approached a massive butterfly bush, he slowed his pace to walk alongside Blake and Yang.
"So…" Jaune started. He looked awkward. "The sun's pretty hot today, right?"
"Not as hot as Blake," Yang winked.
Jaune laughed. "Hey, I was going to say that! You stole my pickup line!"
"Gotta be faster on your feet, Lady Killer,"
"Yang…" Blake muttered, but she was blushing.
"Okay, I'll try a new one," Jaune cleared his throat. Yang crossed her arms over her chest, grinning. "Lady Blake, if you and I were flowers, I believe that we would have a budding romance." Blake snorted, and Yang clapped slowly. "How was that?"
"Points for the pun, but watch and learn," she turned to Blake, "Hand over my heart, I really lilac you," Blake groaned.
"No, no, that one was good," Jaune pulled out his scroll, writing Yang's words down. "Okay, how's about this one: Lady Blake, are you a eucalyptus? Because you exceed my koala-fications,"
Blake shook her hand as Yang laughed. "Check this one: Blake, if you were a flower, you'd be a dammmmmmn-delion."
Jaune laughed loudly and Blake put her head in her hands. "Please, stop," she muttered, "my ears are bleeding," but Yang doubted the red on her cheeks was due to bleeding ears.
"Alright, so riddle me this," Jaune said, turning to Yang. "Half of your application was puns-"
"Oh, the whole essay was puns," Yang pointed out. "There were over 300. If you didn't get them all, go back and read it again. That thing is gold,"
Jaune rolled his eyes. "I will for sure, but you never actually answered the prompt. Why do you think we'd make a good match?"
"We both like puns," Yang pointed out.
"Fair," Jaune laughed, "but… be honest. Why are you here?"
Yang shrugged. Tai had always taught her to be honest, and she didn't have much to lose. "To tell the truth, at first I just came to be a Huntress," Jaune bit his lip, "but now," her eyes flickered to Blake for the briefest second, "I dunno. I actually feel like maybe I can find love here." Jaune stared at her intently, and she shrugged it off, laughing, "and if I get to have pickup-line wars with you along the way, it's not a bad way to spend the summer."
After that, Jaune wanted to talk with Blake one-on-one, and Yang wandered about the garden alone. It was a pretty garden, sure, but she'd never much cared for flowers or butterflies. Velvet seemed to be in absolute heaven, but Yang really couldn't care less. She wondered if Blake liked flowers.
"Hey, you're Ruby's sister, aren't you?"
Yang turned. Emerald stood behind her, arms crossed and eyebrows raised.
Yang nodded. "The one and only. Why, what's up?"
"Nothing much," Emerald shrugged, "just looking for conversation with the prince head over heels for ninja girl over there," she said, nodding to Jaune, who was giving a rose to a blushing Blake. Yang's eye twitched. "So I bet you two are pretty close,"
"I wish…" Yang muttered, eyeing Blake and Jaune.
Emerald raised an eyebrow. "You aren't close to your sister?"
"Oh!" Yang snapped back to face Emerald. "Ruby and I? Yeah, we're best buds. She tells me everything."
"Everything, huh?"
"Yep, and once we're Huntresses, we're gonna go on kickass, thrill-seeking missions around the world," Yang grinned, "just like our moms."
Emerald tilted her head. "I thought you were a Five,"
"Oh, I am," Yang said quickly. "Our dad's a Five -he teaches at Signal- but our moms were Threes."
"I thought if girls married someone of another caste, they changed to their husband's caste."
"They do," Yang shrugged, "that's why my parents never married."
Emerald bit her lip. "I'm sorry to hear that."
"Eh, don't worry. I got used to not having my mom around." Yang rubbed her arm. Talking about her mom made her sad sometimes. It made her wonder why, as a young child, she hadn't been enough for her mom to stay in the picture. "What about you? What's your home like life?"
Emerald looked away. "I have more of a found family than a… traditional family,"
"Nothing wrong with that,"
Emerald laughed. "Yeah… so your mom, is she still active in the field?"
"Yep, Raven Branwen,"
Emerald's eyes widened, and Yang cringed. Her mom's tribe was actively involved in dismantling the security of the kingdom of Remnant. They performed raids on villages, kidnapped citizens for ransom money, and killed licensed Huntsmen that got in their way. Maybe she shouldn't have been so active in sharing that side of her with another contestant. Would that come back to bite her?
"Any relation to Qrow Branwen?"
Yang raised an eyebrow. She had expected more questions about her bandit mother, not her pro (though often drunk) Huntsman uncle. "Yeah, he's my uncle,"
Emerald blinked, looking shocked, but when Yang raised an eyebrow, she merely chuckled. "Good to know,"
By the time Yang's conversation with Emerald had come to a close, Jaune had left Blake to walk around with Velvet, and Yang quickly sped to Blake's side. "How was that?" Yang asked.
Blake shrugged. "He's certainly… princely."
"Are his puns better than mine?"
"Everyone's puns are better than yours,"
Yang gasped, offended, but her facade broke when she heard Blake's laughter.
Ahead of them, Jaune and Velvet walked together in the bright sun, pointing out pretty flowers and following dazzling butterflies. He reached down to take her hand and she looked up, shocked. Yang glanced at Blake. Her hands were by her side, wrapped in black cloth, and she was staring intently at Jaune and Velvet. Slowly, glaring determinedly in front of her so she didn't have to face rejection in case this went poorly, Yang stretched out her hand towards Blake's. Her heart pounded wildly in her chest as she felt Blake's fingers graze against her own. She went to wrap her fingers around the girl's palm, just has Jaune had done to Velvet before them, but Blake's arm stiffened.
Quickly, Yang let go. Stupid. Stupid. That was so stupid. Blake was here to compete for Jaune, not to get distracted by a girl like her. Blake probably didn't even like her that way, and now she had ruined a perfectly good friendship. Well, maybe not ruined, but this would certainly lead to an awkward follow-up conversation. "I'll brush it off as an accident," Yang thought, "easy-peasy. An accidentally hand brush. My bad, Blake," she rehearsed, "my hand just twitched, and then-"
She inhaled sharply, all of her thoughts stopping abruptly to be replaced with a low, static hum. Blake's hand had brushed up against hers now, her fingers intertwining with Yang's. Still refusing to look at Blake (lest the moment stop the instant their awkwardness caught up with them), Yang gave Blake's hand a small squeeze, and she felt her heart skip a beat when Blake squeezed back.
