Hello again!
Well, I was hoping to have an actual release schedule, but being stuck in bed for the past few days with illness hasn't given me much to do, so I've been steadily working on chapter releases. Just don't expect a release every other day or so. I'm not nearly that creative. I want to thank you all again for taking the time to read over and review my story. I'm attempting to get better with my writing style and quality, but I know it'll take a dip eventually. But I digress.
Guest – Yes, I went back later and saw my error. The problem there was that when I typed "Pyrrah" the first time, my editing software in Word saved it as a person, so it was never brought up about how it was misspelled again. Thanks for that, though.
Siegnir – Thank you! And like I told the last reviewer; it's not going anywhere pretty. It's going to get that M rating drop off eventually.
Draco711 – Thanks for the compliment! Yes, feel free to shoot me a PM.
Here's Chapter 3 for your viewing pleasure. Please leave a review at the end if possible, with your thoughts, feelings, concerns, questions, or rude remarks. I'm a big boy.
Italicized – Inner Thoughts
BOLD - Speaker
GodRealm
OOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Chapter 3 - Infiltration
Jaune walked with a steady pace down the hallway of his dormitory. The halls were empty and the usual commotion of his schoolmates going to and from class were missing. He had come to enjoy the crowded halls and nearly being trampled to death just for taking a step out of his room. In a way, it was like being at home away from home. Growing up with a large family (of mostly sisters), this was nothing new to him.
He knew in a few short months that this would also be coming to an end. A frown adorned his face thinking of this fact. Guess we all have to grow up. He thought. Of course, he was excited to be able to sit for his licensure, but the experiences and camaraderie he had experienced in this school would be cherished memories that he'll take with him wherever he goes.
His thoughts traveled to his teammates. Would they all stay together after this? He sure hoped so. Pyrrha, Ren and Nora were like additional family. Hell, he'd die for them as they would for him. Unlocking his semblance could be credited purely to his team. Ren was the brother he never truly had. He was silent and stoic, but he offered great advice. He always looked out for Jaune and whenever he needed him, he was there.
Pyrrha was like an additional sister, but at the same time, possibly his closest friend. Early in freshmen year, many believed they would wind up together. Imagine the goofiest guy at Beacon and THE Pyrrha Nikos? He had considered asking her out and they had even had their times when they could have acted on certain urges, but it wasn't meant to be. After discussing some of their thoughts, they found it best to just remain friends.
This isn't to say they didn't find each other attractive. Pyrrha had only gotten better looking with age and the same went for Jaune. They just knew what they had was a special friendship. They drove each other. He saw her as a normal girl, which was what she wanted more than anything after leading the life she had. And she was a good rock of confidence for Jaune. Being leader wasn't easy, and she knew that.
And then there was Nora. And Nora was... Nora. She brought that wildcard effect to the team. She was like that little kid that got a hold of the candy she was never supposed to have. She was hyperactive, funny, and gross when she wanted to be. But she was also freakishly strong. Did she have the autism? Possibly. At first, she stuck with just Ren, but over time she opened herself up to Pyrrha and himself.
Yeah, his team was a family, just like Team RWBY. Speaking of which...
"All right." Jaune stated, as he had finally come to his destination.
He stood in front of team RWBY's doorway. A bead of sweat dripped down his forehead that he wiped with his sleeve. He had been given his instructions and knew there was no going back now. It was time for Jaune to pull this off. He had been given the car and placed it in the back pocket of his jeans. This was his moment. He cleared his throat and knocked on the door three times with force. Within seconds, he heard footsteps coming from the other side of the door.
The click of the door unlocking followed by it creaking open was what he saw next. The opening revealed a shorter, petite girl with white hair staring back at him.
"Jaune?" She asked.
OOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
Flashback – One hour earlier
"And that is how it will go, gentlemen." Neptune concluded.
Ren was leaning against the wall closest to the door with his arms folded over. His eyes were closed, but he had listened to every detail that Neptune had given. There was nothing much to explain and the hardest part was going to be what came next. He looked over at his blond teammate, Jaune, who was sitting at the table having a sip of water, also listening.
Sun was still on the couch, now flipping through the various channels of Neptune's cable package. He was taking it easy seeing how he by far had the easiest part of the operation, A.K.A. just showing up.
Neptune rolled his paper up placed it on the counter near his sink. Should I throw this away? He thought. Nah, I'll look back at this one day as a treasure.
"Any questions?" He spoke again.
Jaune raised his hand immediately, seemingly distraught.
"Yeah, definitely." Jaune responded. "I think Ren would be a much be-"
"Respect the coin, man." Ren shot back, keeping it short.
Jaune stood up from the chair immediately after the response ready to plead his case. He was slightly pale again and his blue eyes showed signs of worry.
"Oh, come on. You're better at keeping your cool than I am. And I-"
"Coin."
"I thought we were friends!"
"We are... if you respect the coin."
Jaune let out a sigh. He knew he was defeated. He had lost fair and square.
"I just... I don't know how to go about hiding this thing somewhere in their room with them not watching me do it." He said, motioning to the tiny car now in his right hand. "Even before that, how am I supposed to get in there?" He finished.
Neptune turned around from the kitchen counter and shook his head.
"You're their friend, aren't you? What other reason would they need to let you in their room?" He gave as a response.
"I mean, yeah, we're friends and all, but that doesn't mean they will let me just walk on in. This is a bedroom of four women. Do you think they want a guy in there, especially when they're planning whatever they're planning for later?" Jaune retorted.
Ren's eyes opened as a response and Neptune rubbed his chin. Sun simply ignored the question. Not his problem.
"Ask to borrow something?" Ren offered.
That's it? Jaune thought, shooting Ren a look of annoyance.
"Look, Jaune. You're going to have to improvise somehow. I put this thing together and your part is to make this work. I know it's not an easy task, but once it's done, we are in the clear." Neptune stated.
Jaune looked back at the blue-haired man this time. He sighed and took a seat once more at the table and took a sip of his water.
"Easy for you to say. You'll be safely tucked away here until tonight when we move to our room." Jaune replied, motioning to Ren and himself.
Neptune took a seat at the table and sighed himself. He reached out put a consoling hand on Jaune's shoulder. Jaune looked up at him from the glass he was twirling around.
"I know I am asking a lot of you, buddy. And trust me, if it were my school, I'd have Sun do it instead."
Sun coughed at this and looked back at two sitting at the table from the couch.
"Why me?!" Sun asked.
Neptune kept his hand on Jaune's shoulder as he looked over, narrow-eyed at his own teammate.
"That's because you have nothing to contribute to this. You're basically a freeloader."
Sun shrugged and turned around after hearing this. He went back to laying out on the comfortable couch he had been on for the better half of an hour at this point. He picked the controller up and began flipping through channels as he had been earlier.
Back at the table, Jaune still felt unconfident about this.
"I'll give it a shot." He managed to say.
Neptune released his shoulder and clapped his hands together as almost to say, 'Thank you.'
"Great. I knew an Arc never goes back on his word." Neptune answered with a smile.
Jaune simply smiled back.
End flashback
OOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
"Jaune?"
"HiNeighborDoYouHaveSomeSugarICanBorrow?" Jaune nearly yelled out with eyes shut, nervous as can be expected.
"...What?"
Jaune opened his eyes and met the gaze of a confused, blue-eyed girl known as Weiss Schnee. She was staring up at him, almost concerned.
Jaune reached out with his measuring cup that he had been carrying in his left hand, while rubbing the back of his head and neck with his right.
"I... uhh... was wondering if you might have... some sugar... I could borrow?" He squeaked out.
Her look of confusion changed to a narrow-eyed expression of annoyance. Jaune began to sweat a tiny bit more after that. She can't be on to me already, can she?
"Why would we have sugar?" She answered. "You know all the extra supplies are kept in the common area down the hall."
Fuck, I'm an idiot. He thought.
Trying to regain his composure, he coughed and cleared his throat.
"Yeah, I already checked there. Nothing." He responded, lying of course.
"What about the other floors of the do-"
"Nope! Nothing! Checked there to!" He responded, quickly.
She opened the door wider and folded her arms over her chest. Still annoyed, she gave a sigh afterwards.
"Really?" She asked.
She turned around as if she was already ending this discussion, one hand on the other side of the door from inside the room.
"Well, I hate to break it to you, but none of us have any sugar that we're hoarding so you might want to just head on down to the corner-"
At this time, Jaune felt like he was about to lose his best opportunity to plant the camera car. As she attempted to shut the door, he placed his foot between the door and the frame to stop it in place. Weiss felt the resistance looked back at Jaune, confused once more.
"A-are you sure? Could you at least ask the others? Please?" He asked her, almost pleading.
She let go of the door with a sigh and opened it all the way.
The opening of the door revealed her other roommates. Blake was on her bed, reading another one of her books. Erotica. She was flipping through pages as if looking for something specific. She had undoubtedly read this book multiple times before with that kind of knowledge. Jaune had caught her more than once drooling over one of her "novels" she enjoyed reading. It didn't take a genius to know what it was. Plus, Ruby confirmed it for him later.
Yang was at her desk, applying some sort of makeup while simultaneously messing with her hair. A little much for a night in. She ignored the look Jaune gave and was keeping to herself and what she had been doing prior to his arrival.
Lastly, Ruby was on Weiss's bunk with her eyes shut, listening to her headphones. She had her hands behind her with a smile adorning her face. She bobbed her head back and forth as the loud music played, also unaware that Jaune was there. What am I invisible?
"All right everyone." Weiss announced, causing Blake and Yang to look at her. "I can't believe I'm asking this, but does anyone have any sugar for our friend here?"
Blake and Yang gave Weiss a puzzled look at the same time. Jaune felt dumber by the second. The best he could do is sugar? Why didn't he ask to borrow Ruby's comics? Oum, he might have even been able to pull off asking for a tampon for someone, but he decided on sugar. He mentally kicked himself for his idea.
"Nope, sorry." Blake said as she went back to reading.
Yang chuckled to herself. "What are you actually trying to bake something there, Jauney boy?"
Jauney boy again? Why is this a thing? He thought.
Jaune coughed as a response and stood up straight. "Yeah, that was the plan."
Yang chuckled again and went back to her makeup. "Well, as interesting as that sounds, I don't have any sugar for you either. Sorry."
Jaune sighed. This whole thing was not working. The only thing being accomplished was that he was making himself look dumber and losing credibility with Team RWBY. Weiss turned around to face him once again.
"There you have it." She stated. "Like I said, you might just want to go buy some."
Jaune had one last shot he could take.
"Err, what about Ruby?" He asked.
Weiss turned towards her last teammate who had remained on her bed listening to music blissfully unaware of the situation going on in the room. Weiss shrugged her shoulders and began walking towards her.
"Well, I guess if anyone would have sugar it would be her." She stated.
She stopped next to Ruby and began trying to get her attention.
"Ruby. Ruby. HELLO, RUBY?!" She yelled with no response.
Weiss decided she had enough. She gripped both ends of Ruby's oversized headphones and with a small tug and a smile, she pulled them apart before letting them go and allowing them to smack her on both side of her head. As a response, Ruby shot up out of her laying position to that of a sitting one. She rubbed the sides of her head as the headphones fell to the wayside on Weiss's bed.
"Ow. That hurt!" She yelled, turning towards the culprit. "Weiss!"
Weiss simply laughed at her friend's face and pouting.
"Sorry, but I've been trying to get your attention."
"Couldn't you have just tapped me?"
"I guess, but this was funnier." She shrugged.
Ruby crossed her arms and pouted again. Being the youngest of the group, she was often referred to as the "kid" of the group, and rightfully so. Being two years younger than the rest of your team will tend to come with that kind of stipulation. Especially when she acted the way that she did.
"Anyway, what do you want?" Ruby asked, still annoyed.
Weiss stopped her laughing and pointed over to Jaune who was smiling at the antics himself by the door.
"Jaune wanted to know if you had any sugar he could borrow. Yang, Blake, and I obviously don't." She replied.
Ruby looked over at Jaune who was standing awkwardly in the doorway and shot him a smile.
"Sure do." She replied.
Jaune and Weiss looked at her in surprise at this response.
"...What?" They offered in unison.
Ruby got up off the bed and dusted off her combat skirt while stretching out. She yawned afterwards and looked back at Jaune.
"I've got a personal stash that I've been hiding under this bed here."
You've got to be kidding me. He thought. "O-Oh, that's great! Ren will be a happy man."
Weiss looked at her teammate with an annoyed expression.
"You've been hiding sugar under my bed? What's wrong with you? Do you want bugs?" Weiss stated.
"Oh, I'm sorry. You weren't complaining when I made those delicious treats just the other week when you had a craving." Ruby responded, bending down to look under the bed.
"I made those." Blake responded, not looking away from her book. Pervert.
"And I supplied the sugar." Ruby stated, looking at her while answering before going back to looking under the bed.
Jaune noticed that all the girls were currently pre-occupied with what they were doing. Now might be the best chance. He thought to himself.
Without missing a beat, he reached into his back pocket with his hand and gripped the car tightly, but not tight enough to cause any damage to it. He safely concealed it within his grasp and pulled it out of his pocket. He scanned the room for a safe spot to put it while the others were distracted. It had to be somewhere that had a decent view of the room. The last thing he wanted to do was get blamed for having a bad or no angle at all by the others.
Infiltration complete.
His gaze fell upon where Ruby was bent over near the bed. Nige thighs. He shook himself from his dirty thoughts and noticed where she was would be a decent spot. Underneath the bed would provide an optimal view for the others to see, as well as, himself. He just had to place it at the edge under her bed, but far enough under where it wouldn't be seen.
I'll pretend like I'm tying my shoe and place the car down while I do that. He thought. Not a half-bad plan on the fly.
"Hey, Jaune?" Ruby asked.
Jaune shook himself of his thoughts again and looked at Ruby who was now back to a standing position with what appeared to be a bag of sugar.
"Here you go." She stated, shaking the bag.
Jaune smiled. "Thanks, Rubes." He began making his walk over to where she was standing rather than have her come to him and destroy his plan before it could even happen.
"What are you making, anyway?" Ruby asked him.
Fuck.
"Oh, uh, we, uh, we're making a chocolate cake." He replied, rubbing his head as he walked.
Ruby's face lit up like a Christmas tree. It's no secret that she was a glutton when it came to sweets and chocolate was her favorite. She started jumping up and down with her smile, shaking the bag further.
"CHCOLATE CAKE!" She yelled. "I want some! Save me a piece for later tonight!"
"Y-Yeah, definitely!" Jaune answered, almost feeling about the lie. She sure is cute when she's excited. He thought.
Weiss patted Ruby's head to calm her down. Ruby looked at her with a confused look.
"Ruby, we have plans tonight REMEMBER?" Weiss told her, adding emphasis to the end of the question.
Ruby's face dropped to a frown right after. She had remembered that tonight was THAT night and she couldn't say anything about it.
"Oh. Yeah. Right." She replied in a monotone voice.
Jaune laughed again. He knew exactly what they were talking about. "Don't worry, Ruby. I'll save you a piece for next time I see you."
Ruby looked up at him again with a smile. "Really?!" She asked him.
Jaune replied with a smile of his own. "Yeah, you know it." Great, now I really have to bake a cake.
Jaune being caught up in his thoughts was never a good thing. As a matter of fact, some would say it was a hazard all its own. As he was approaching Ruby for the bag, he failed to recognize the book on the floor. Not only did he fail to recognize the book, but he lost his footing after stepping on the spine of the book, forcing him to fall forward from his position.
It was over in a second with a thud. He barely had time to realize what had happened. One second he was talking about cake and the next he was on the floor. Or was he?
"Uh... Jaune?" A voice asked him.
Jaune opened his eyes to find two silver eyes looking up at him from the floor. Apparently, his luck, or lack thereof, did it to him again. He found himself laying on top of Ruby. He had dropped the cup for the sugar that he brought with him but was still clutching the car in his right hand so that no one would be any the wiser.
Jaune could feel himself getting warmer. Embarrassment and excitement had set in. He could feel her breath on his face as she had spoken, and her chest was on his. He felt her tiny frame under him as breathed. He had braced himself with his left hand after dropping the cup, but only enough to make sure his weight hadn't squashed her in the fall.
"R-Ruby! I'm sorry!" Jaune stated, pushing himself off her warmth and moving himself to her left, next to the bunk bed.
"I-It's okay." She replied, sheepishly.
Her face was red. She felt how red it was. She tried to think of something else besides the contact, but her mind was a blur. Jaune and Ruby hugged regularly, but this was a different kind of force. She braced herself from the fall by grabbing onto his outstretched left arm that took the brunt of the fall.
So toned. She thought.
She sat up from her laying position, trying her best to hide her red face. She looked the other way from him and pushed the sugar towards his chest.
"Here you go! No hard feelings!" She stated, still looking away.
Jaune grabbed the bag with his left hand as he moved his right hand around his back. With a swift motion, he placed the wheels of the car on the ground and rolled it slightly under the bed so it should be out of view. He then used his right hand to push up from the edge of her bed and help himself back up to a standing position.
Mission complete.
Jaune was still red from the antics but knew he would have to recuperate and re-evaluate once he was out of the danger zone. He offered an outstretched right hand to Ruby to take and help her up.
"Thanks. Sorry again." He replied.
She looked back at him, still uneasy. She smiled and placed a hand in his and he helped her to her feet, just as he had done in their freshmen year when they had arrived at Beacon. The other three women in the room had watched the whole thing unwind and had devilish smiles on their faces.
"Geez, Jaune." Yang stated. "If you wanted my sister that bad you could have just said so. You didn't have to make up a story about sugar and then tackle her."
Both Ruby and Jaune went back to red with that statement as the other two girls snickered at the comment. The whole situation was completely mortifying.
"I... I... Have to go!" Jaune announced in a panic. He turned away from Ruby and ran for the door, slamming it behind him on the way out. He ran down the hallway, sugar spilling onto the floor as he just wanted to get some distance.
Once gone, Weiss, Blake and Yang erupted into a loud laughter. Ruby remained in the same spot with a red hue all over her face. The laughter eventually died. Once it did, she regained her composure and sat on the edge of Weiss's bed. She looked over at her headphones and picked them up once more as her gaze fell to the spot where Jaune and she had just had the incident.
The other girls went back to what they were doing as she continued to stare at the spot, almost smiling now. That wasn't so bad. She thought to herself.
Her gaze caught something out of place as she looked next to her nightstand near the bed. Upon further inspection she noticed exactly what it was. She reached out and grabbed it before looking at it closer in her hands.
"He forgot his measuring cup." She murmured. That's strange. She thought to herself as well.
OOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOo
I'm not going to lie, this chapter finished up a lot quicker than I had anticipated. I was sitting around and thought I would get started and it just kind of kept flowing. I'm happy to say the boat has set sail on the actual plot now. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I'm going to do my best to not procrastinate and keep putting out content on a regular basis.
Again, if you have any words of praise or criticism, I would love to hear them! Leave a review or shoot me a PM. I'm pretty open about all that.
Until next time!
GodRealm
