What is redeemed Emerald for if not to torment her new friends?
Emerald lazily cradled her head in her hand, sitting on her own bean bag chair as the rest of the group flinched or squealed at the supposedly terrifying jumpscare, even though it had probably been the fiftieth since the movie had started. What a bunch of pansies, she thought, as she scanned her eyes across the people she was watching with...her friends, she supposed, all paired up on the two-person couches across the room.
Not surprisingly, Nora was gripping onto Ren tightly, though it was impossible to tell whether it was for comfort or out of the thrill. Considering Nora, it was probably the former. Equally unsurprising, Blake was all but sitting in Yang's lap, hiding her face in her neck everytime a scary part came on. She thought it ironic the apparent badass ninja was a big, well...scaredy cat. As Emerald continued her perusal, her eyes suddenly paused on a new and interesting sight.
Ruby Rose, the supposedly fearless leader of their little band of world savers, was curled up into Jaune Arc's side, with her face hiding in his shoulder. She occasionally peeked her head out, when the movie seemed to quiet down, but quickly returned to her position whenever something frightening happened. As for Jaune himself, he seemed almost too comfortable with this position. Whilst he was using one hand to hide his eyes, the other was lightly rubbing Ruby's shoulder in a comforting gesture.
She glanced across at the last pair, and the other supposed 'non-couple seat' as Ruby had declared when everyone had sat themselves down. Weiss & Oscar were mutually gripping onto each-other in fright, but otherwise didn't acknowledge the other's presence, their eyes glued to the screen. No, Emerald decided as she looked back at the leaders, what was happening with Ruby & Jaune was beyond the actions of a 'non-couple'.
As the intense action finally began to die down, Ruby untangled herself from Jaune, and as she moved away he actually leaned his head down to plant a small kiss in Ruby's hair! Emerald glanced back across the rest of the group. They seemed completely unaware of their leaders' intimate position and actions. It was at that point, Emerald realised with an evil chuckle, she could have some fun with this.
After a few minutes, with the movie entering one of those quiet stages to lull everyone into a false sense of security, Emerald concentrated, projecting something horrifying that only appeared to Ruby & Jaune. As the illusion crossed the screen, they yelped loudly in terror, Jaune throwing his arms around Ruby while she almost jumped into his lap, her face buried into the blond's shoulder once again.
The rest of the group all turned to look at them with the loud and unexpected noise, being met with the sight of Ruby & Jaune in a tight embrace, for no reason readily apparent to them, other than the one obvious conclusion - they were doing it because they wanted to.
Yang smirked, as she became the first to initiate the inevitable teasing, "Comfy there, sis?"
Ruby extricated her face from Jaune's side, confused that the rest of the group hadn't reacted to the frankly terrifying and out of nowhere jumpscare. Trying to catch her breath, she said, "B-but, the movie…"
Nora interrupted. "No need to pretend the film's scary if ya wanna hug." She tightened her grip around Ren to emphasise the point.
"Didn't you all see...that?" Jaune asked incredulously, unable to believe that no-one found what they had seen even remotely scary. He'd probably have nightmares about it for weeks.
"Nothing's happening," Ren said. "It's just a lot of exposition at the moment."
Blake, who by now was completely in Yang's lap, added slyly, "You shouldn't be embarrassed if you want to be close to the person you like."
Even though he knew none of them were being serious, Jaune still attempted to deny all the implications, "Y-yeah, but we don't…" he began, but trailed off quickly as his own internal realisation hit him like a slap. He looked down to see his couch-mate similarly gazing up at him. "Ruby?"
"I might have had my own...reasons for wanting to sit next to you instead of Weiss," she said quietly.
"Do...do you feel-" he began, but Weiss suddenly interjected.
"Can you all be quiet?! I think the killer's about to be unmasked!" Everyone turned their attention back to the screen, except for Ruby & Jaune, who instead continued to maintain their soft eye contact.
"Talk when the movie's finished?" Ruby whispered. Jaune nodded, then reached his arm around to tug Ruby into his side, and she reciprocated the contact by leaning her head against his shoulder, preparing herself should anything scary happen again. "What I don't understand is how…" she trailed off as she realised Emerald was grinning in their direction. Ruby raised an eyebrow, silently questioning, and Emerald simply winked back at her, before focusing her attention back on the screen.
Ruby could do little more than roll her eyes. She would definitely have to thank Emerald later for giving them a push they needed...but she was also definitely gonna get back at her for this.
The penultimate 9 Days 2021 tale I'm uploading here