A very short chapter, for a single scene. I just felt bad leaving off on a cliffhanger like that for too long, so I'm throwing out the resolution quick-like. I feel like this part also thrives on its own, as well.

This was just… stupid.

He'd managed to do so much in his life. So much badassery. He'd established such an immense, monstrous reputation. The Lone Wanderer: scourge of the wastes. As much of an enigma as the Mysterious Stranger had ever been, but regarded as even deadlier. Some people said they'd rather fight a deathclaw than him, he who had destroyed Paradise Falls, who had tamed Old Oney, who had crushed the Talon Company, who was even whispered to be some kind of vengeful spirit or angry demon by those wastelanders who were particularly insane, be it from famishment, or mutation or just plain old delusion.

And here he was, staving off a panic attack as he told his crush he liked her.

Funny how things can turn out.

"So… yeah," he said. He didn't really know what else to say. What was this supposed to be like? Hm? He'd never really been told how to do this… wait, why hadn't Peach told me how to do this? Or Qrow? Those assholes! Isn't one an expert in interpersonal communication, and the other is a master of seduction? Assholes!

"You… me…" Ruby's face remained blank, paralyzed by shock.

Jaune, meanwhile, couldn't move whatsoever either, as a tight pain in his chest formed, contracting the surrounding muscles and making it hard indeed to even breath. Everything about this moment… it was the culminations of months—no, years—of hope and desire.

"Love…" Ruby blinked, and then she swallowed with some difficulty, throat dry and tight. "Like… romantically?"

He nodded.

He supposed there was something else he ought to say, but he had no real idea what on earth he could possibly do, physically speaking. Pulling the trigger on the battlefield was unaffected by social anxiety, unlike this situation. There were a million things he wanted to say, but he wasn't able to draw in enough breath to speak even one of them.

He closed his eyes.

Breathe deep. Hold. Release.

Control came back to him, if only nominally, and he was just about to open his eyes and speak before… well…

He heard a whoosh of air, and a brilliant sound that was something of a laugh, something of a squeak, something of a squeal—an odd kind of expression of pure joy. He opened his eyes just fast enough to see, for but a flash of a second, her coming towards him.

She crashed into him, and he fell back on the floor as her arms wrapped around his waist and she pressed her head beside his neck.

"Yes!" she said as Jaune squawked and tumbled back, followed closely be Ruby, falling on top of him. She immediately sat up, straddling his waist. And it was then that he saw the immense smile on her face. "Yes!" she said again. "Yes! Yes! Yes!"

She pumped her fist in the air, victorious. Then she looked back down at him, still dumbfounded and speechless underneath her. Ruby shut her eyes and squealed in delight, wrapping her arms around her own shoulders, as if to celebrate and give herself a hug.

When she finally opened her eyes again, she looked back down at him, and he saw tears already beading down her cheeks around a quivering, overwhelmed smile.

"I've loved you," she said, "for what feels like forever!"

The sudden surge of adrenaline he felt upon hearing those words… well, it ended his paralysis quite quickly.

"What!?" he nearly yelled, shooting up into his own sitting position, causing Ruby to yelp and fall back onto the floor. "Because I've been in love with you for like forever too! God damn it!" His face became red with both anger and humiliation.

But Ruby only laughed, a dumb smile on her face both from the wanton happiness and his anger, which by now she only saw as silly.

The look of her there, joyful and tearful and looking at him like he was the most amazing thing in the world… it made any trace of anger disappear, and suddenly his blood heated like magma, and his suit felt like a sauna. He noticed, also, how their legs were intertwined.

He coughed and scooted backwards, just as Ruby noticed their proximity and blushed, also scooting away and folding her legs, leaving just a foot or so between them.

His thoughts swirled. For one, his brain was still trying to play catch-up, and it only now filled his consciousness with images of Ruby straddling him. Judging from the way she dipped her head and crossed her arms, Jaune assumed Ruby had just been hit by the same.

Besides that… well… fuck. Where to start?

"How long?" It was Ruby to speak again, a low whisper. She didn't look up to him, but that smile was still on her lips.

And as Jaune spoke, he realized that he'd started smiling as well.

"Ever since you convinced me to stay here a few months ago… I've been so in love with you," he said. He swallowed, as he found the brutal honesty and sincerity of those words to be almost embarrassing, certainly hard to say, almost enough to choke on. "But I think… I think I may have felt more for you even longer than that."

"Wow…" Ruby rubbed her hands together nervously, as if she was delicately trying to heat them up again the cold.

"Since when have you…?"

"Since my friends," she said. "Well, my old friends." She shrugged, but not even that darker memory of an unpleasant part of her life made her smile dip so much as a fraction. "You were there for me, and I knew… it just showed up all of a sudden. It was just there. I just… wanted you."

Another second or two wore on, before they each processed some of the other connotations of what she'd just said.

"Well—like—uh—I mean!" She turned away, lest he saw the wrecked, nervous look on her face. "Just, like, emotionally! Emotional want! Um…"

"Want for what?"

The atmosphere suddenly sobered. She turned back, and no smile now came to her face as she saw the mix of complicated emotions expressed in Jaune's posture and face and tone of voice. His shoulder were hunched, while he leaned intently forward, eager to hear, but also the way he failed meet her eyes said he was almost afraid of an answer.

"You're so nice," Ruby said, voice clear and soft and sincere. "One of the nicest people I know, at heart. And you're strong, and you're responsible, and you're handsome, and… I just feel like you're somebody I could always lean on, who will always make me feel happy and special."

Jaune felt like he would explode. He had no real ideal what the cocktail of emotions inside of him was, just that it was volatile like gasoline mixed with nuclear waste mixed with gunpowder. Volatile, but also immensely satisfying in some bizarre way.

"What… what do you see in me?" Ruby asked in return.

"What don't I see?" he blurted without a second's delay. It was all just so obvious to him. "You're nice beautiful kind innocent pure smart caring helpful"– he stopped just a moment to breathe –"and you touch me like nobody else can."

"What!?"

His eyes widened, and now it was his turn to try and reverse the stupidity of unthought words. "Emotionally!" he said, recycling the excuse. "I mean, touching my heart or soul or feelings because you're so nice and perfect!"

"I…" Ruby looked away. "Perfect…?"

She said the word as a question, as if it were a foreign thing, unknown to her. And in a way it was, at least for this context. For someone to really think of her as perfect… nobody outside her family truly believed that, or at least felt that. Someone who really cared for her… loved her in a way that nobody else in the world loved her.

Jaune watched her as she in turn lost herself in a happy stupor, breathing quickly and wearing a smile that lit in turn a joyful fire within him.. He didn't know what the next step could possibly be, overwhelmed by emotion and inexperience alike.

Breath deep. Hold. Release.

Surely there's something I can use? Some kind of advice…

Breathe deep. Hold. Release.

Qrow gave me at least a little bit… initiative! Take it! Vibes! Are there any?

Well, considering she told me she loved me, I think that yeah, there are some real vibes here… then initiative!

He narrowed his eyes, leveled his gaze as if he was readying the barrel of a rifle, taking aim… fire!

He reached out and grabbed her hands in his own.

She flinched and stared at him when he did it, suddenly knocked from whatever thoughts had distracted her; now she'd been pulled back into reality. She didn't resist as he tightened his grip, cupped his fingers around hers, even though his hands were quite sweaty (so were hers).

"Ruby…" He swallowed, but then nearly felt like choking; his throat was incredibly dry. "Would…"

He took a deep breath, then resolutely locked eyes with her and spoke once more:

"Will you be my girlfriend?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" she said, not needing to think for a second. She smiled wide, and now Jaune couldn't help but feel a few tears coming as he grinned in return.

So there they were, stuck in a world filled with monsters, corruption, crime and brutality. But right at that moment, in that spot, they were in a world of their own, and in that world were just two stupid kids in love.

He stood up shakily, and Ruby came up along with him, such that the two if them were finally off of the floor and standing beside each other. He still clasped her hands in hers, but as the tears unexpectedly rolled down his face, he eventually let go to deal with that. He rubbed out his eyes and sniffed, and Ruby did the same. Then he blinked the last irritation away, and Ruby did the same.

Then… well, he just sorta looked at her, and she just sorta looked at him. Her eyes, that most brilliant kind of silver, and his own, one such a pure and pretty blue, the other a dark and ugly red. Both of them found the other's eyes to be beautiful.

That was when he felt it. As Ruby smiled, his own dipped down, weighed by something beyond just happiness. He felt… something. Maybe it was just the atmosphere, the mix of emotional charge that they'd both released. Perhaps it was just instinct. Or maybe it was just want on his part.

But he felt vibes.

Her own smile fell away as she just looked up at him, nervous. She fidgeted, tapping her fingers together and stepping awkwardly in place. Nevertheless, she dared to press closer to him, to lean even nearer. There was just a feeling she was giving off, and it mixed with a feeling he had inside.

How had Qrow described it? Something primal? Something natural?

He leaned forward.

So did she.

He closed his eyes.

So did she.

Blood rushed through his chest, and the muscles on his back tensed painfully, as if some great weight fell on his shoulders. But he leaned forward a bit further—

And then they bumped their noses smack into each other.

"Oof!"

"Ah!"

They both pulled back, and some of the tension seeped away as neither could suppress a giggle.

They stopped laughing pretty soon. They both realized what had very nearly happened. And they both wanted to try for it again. The vibes demanded as much.

So this time Jaune tilted his head just a little bit to one side, and Ruby tilted hers just a little bit to the other, and they closed their eyes and they leaned in once more, each intent to fulfill the fantasies which had slipped into their idle thoughts and unknown dreams for months.

His lips met something soft, but a little dry, actually. He pulled back just a fraction, driven by a bit of panic and a bit of surreal surprise, but those damn vibes were having none of it, and he immediately pushed back in.

She tasted like… something? He didn't really know. To be honest, he didn't really focus on the taste at all. There was her smell, that of sweet, fresh strawberries. And there was her touch, as she wrapped her arms up around his neck and he wrapped his own around her waist; and of course, she pressed her lips against his own.

It didn't look all that romantic, the pressing of faces done by two people who had never done it before. But they didn't care; in fact, they didn't care for much of anything, for caring requires some thinking, and there was certainly none of that going on.

He moved his lips around hers, an action she returned in kind. He shuddered when he felt her warm tongue slip out and brush against his lips, prompting him to open his mouth, preparing for more.

Ruby pulled back, only to press forward again but to a different area, laying desperate kisses upon his cheek and jawline, then even dipping her head and kissing along his neck; all of this was done in a way she'd seen in a movie once, and a desperate part of her mind figured that some primal recreation of that example was desirable

Jaune shuddered as she moved her mouth across his skin, but soon desired a return to the original. Ruby sighed as he ran one hand up along her ribs, causing her skin to tingle as if shocked by static. He brought his hand up past her shoulder and pressed his fingers into her soft hair. He tilted her head back up so he could again press his lips to hers, and his tongue met her own—

That was when the door opened.

"Hey Ruby your—oh gods!" It was Pyrrha who spoke, and surprise suddenly consumed her tone in those last few words as her eyes widened and she gasped. But oh no, that wasn't the worst of it.

"Best uncle's back in town!" cheered a raspy, happy voice that both teens instantly recognized, and it instantly filled each with horror. The door was flung open as Qrow Branwen kicked it and haughtily strode into the room. "So—"

His eyes widened. His jaw dropped. For the first time in a long time, Qrow was well and truly shocked into silence. The same reaction was had by his apprentice, but not by his niece.

"Ah!" Jaune gasped as Ruby pressed her palms against his chest and shoved him away, swiftly extricating the two.

Quickly, however, resentment and a little bit of anger welled up in him, directed purely at his annoying mentor. Of course, that asshole Qrow had to come barge in and ruin everything. He waited for the man to get past his initial shock and adopt a wry grin, then make fun of him.

A few seconds passed, but Qrow did no such thing. He continued to stare, dumbfounded. That's when Jaune started to feel a little panic.

"Uh, err, um, "Ruby said, stuttering at each syllable. She drew in a breath to calm herself for a moment, before finally saying, "Hey… uncle Qrow."

"Uncle?"

Oh god. Oh no.

A horrible pit tore open in Jaune's stomach. A desperate part of himself wondered if there were any possible way he could skirt this situation, pass off their proximity as simple affection or a hug or… or something other than what it had been, anything at all.

But a glance at Ruby crushed those hopes. He saw how her lipstick was smudged across her mouth, and only then did he realize that that same shade of scarlet was smattered across his own face and neck.

"Didn't know you were coming…" Ruby muttered, not daring to look up from the floor.

"What…?" Qrow was barely able to make out the single word through his confusion.

"This is uh…" Ruby pointed at Jaune. "This is my boyfriend."

"YES! FINALLY!" Nora shouted in the hallway, a part of the audience of his closest friends and confidantes.

The acute sense of mortification that collapsed upon him was so intense, that there was a tiny part of Jaune's soul that legitimately just wanted to die.

Qrow blinked, shaking his head minutely. "Since when?"

"Since… uh… five minutes ago…" Ruby mumbled.

Qrow turned his gaze to Jaune, who was unwilling to meet it. For he could only think of the things he'd said and talked about with his mentor just a few days ago.

I saw her in a bikini once…

Yeah she's hot…

Yeah I'd bang her…

Qrow's eyes narrowed.

Fuck.

Oh boy, and Qrow's antics finally come back to bite him in the ass. But hey, his pupil is just doing what he told him too, right?

Kudos to anybody who got the RvB reference last chapter with the puma. I don't really reference other RT stuff that much, but especially with how humorous and fluffy I made last chapter, I wanted to have something else fun thrown in there.

And as for the theories about the creature at Mountain Glenn, I'll give just one hint: there's a tiny, very easily missed detail in chapter 10 that may shed a little light on the situation.