Dance
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"Just go talk to her, dude."
"It's not that simple!"
Ren sighed at his friend's quick response to his advice. It wasn't often he felt the need to step in when it came to the possible romance life, or lack thereof, for Jaune Arc, but everyone had their limits. While he was recovering from "dancing" as Nora called it, he had been listening to his blonde friend sigh at the table they had been sharing. Sighing and staring at the redhead who was now currently conversing with Nora across the room.
The group had been sent on an assignment and were currently staying in Mistral after successfully eliminating Grimm on the outskirts of the city as they had been directed. They had been given the option after mission completion to take some time off before returning. Normally, Jaune, Nora, and Ren operated in a three-person cell, but Ruby had offered to jump in since her team had all requested time off. Right place at the right time kind of situation.
At least, that's what you would think. The only problem being that both Jaune and Ruby had entered an almost "awkward" stage as Ren would put it. Being able to sense others emotions only made it more infuriating to him when the two just refused to seal the deal. Boy liked girl, girl likes boy, the end. Yeah, not so much apparently.
Apparently, their theme was talk for a bit, somewhat flirt, not know what to say/do next, become distant, and repeat the cycle. After dealing with this for the entirety of the mission and now at a festival being held in Mistral, he was eager to get it over with.
"You need to just–"
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"-go talk to him!" Nora raved, just as exasperated.
"It isn't that simple!" Ruby replied in a similar response.
"No, it's exactly that simple!" Nora chided. "You're both acting like a couple of pre-teens while actually being a full-fledged Huntsman and Huntress."
"I just don't want it to be awkward."
"What did you both even talk about last that you're acting this way?"
Ruby went to respond before stopping, mouth slightly agape. She moved her hand to her head, scratching it slightly, trying to rack her brain and recall the incident from earlier in the day. "You know, I don't even remember how it went."
Nora slumped in response to the girl's words. "You… don't even remember?" She repeated in a questionable tone.
"I, uhh, I guess not." Ruby replied with a nervous chuckle.
Nora felt her blood pressure rising as she listened to Ruby. How did two people who were avoiding each other due to an awkward situation not know why they were avoiding each other? This was just some kind of mess she hadn't predicted would ever occur. For two team leaders, they really were as Weiss often called them, "a couple of dolts."
She could only hope that Ren was having a better outcome than her.
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"She could get mad at me. She could hate me. She might even laugh at me if I–"
"When has Ruby ever done any of those things, first of all." Ren retorted, not willing to give the blonde another chance to speak. "Secondly, you think she would respond to you trying to talk to her again after an awkward encounter like that?!"
"I mean… maybe?" Jaune shrugged.
"What even happened to where you are both avoiding each other's eyes from across the room like this?" Ren sighed once more, catching his head in his palm before he could faceplant on the table.
"Well… it's complicated." Jaune coughed in response to his friend's inquiry.
"I'm listening." Ren answered after waiting a few seconds. Only because this is downright annoying.
"Okay, so we were at the punch station a few minutes ago, because, you know, we were like thirsty, or whatever…"
Ren tried his best to ignore his friend's stammering at the layup of a question. For a guy that usually had a gameplan walking into just about any situation, when it came to Ruby, his mind was mush. Sort of like how he let his own self-esteem actually make him believe that Ruby would berate him in any way, shape, or form.
He didn't know when it happened, but this was happening more and more frequently when they came together. Luckily, he had the patience of a saint, because if he was anything like Nora, and she had his semblance, she'd have blabbed or forced them into a room until they talked things out properly. Though he had to admit, that idea was sounding more and more tempting by the second.
"And that's when it happened…"
Ren raised an eyebrow at his friend's statement. "When what happened?"
"Our… We…"
"Yes?"
"Our hands touched." Jaune finally retorted, wincing into himself and covering his eyes.
Ren's eye twitched vehemently as he looked Jaune over, watching him writhe in what he could only assume to be embarrassment.
No. He thought. The embarrassing part is both of you being the age you are and getting flustered at touching hands.
"Jaune… we do combination attacks all the time." Ren stated, trying to contain his innermost rage from over taking him.
"Yeah, but… that's so different."
"You literally launched her into the air earlier by her hand when we were fighting, didn't you?!"
"Just… so different."
Ren's last bit of strength left his body at that moment, causing him to smack his head on the table, causing the blonde to jump in response. He remained there for a moment, trying to reboot his mind as he took in this reasoning, or rather lack of, from his leader. That was it, not one more excuse was going to be made.
"Jaune," Ren began as he lifted his now reddened face from the table. "Go over there and ask Ruby to dance or something…"
Jaune paused for a moment, taking in the advice like a slow-soaked sponge before it actually hit him. "WHAT?!" He replied loudly, causing a few of the other guests to give him a concerned look.
"Go over there and do something. Talk, dance, I don't know." Ren repeated in a stern manner. "You're a man and you should take charge. You can't be like this for the rest of the trip home."
"But what if she–"
"No buts!" Ren interrupted again, pointing a finger at the girl across the room. "Go now or I'll ask Yang for help on the matter."
"You wouldn't dare!"
Ren looked Jaune in the eye as he slowly reached for his scroll and turned it on. He went to his contacts, hovering over Ms. Xiao-Long's name before showing the screen to his friend, with his thumbs dangerously close to the call button. Jaune only sweated in response, throwing his hands up in defeat.
"Okay! Okay!" He demanded. "I get it! Blackmail it is then." He finished, making his way across the dance floor.
"Yeah, blackmail it is." Ren responded as he put away his scroll with a small grin as he watched Jaune depart from the table.
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"So basically, if you think about it, different candy can be considered fruits even if it has artificial ingredients." Ruby commented to a defeated Nora.
"How did we even get to this?" She spoke to herself aloud as she cradled her head in her hands.
To say the conversation had been unproductive was an understatement. Not only did Ruby "blank" on how her and Jaune were avoiding each other's company, but she had somehow wound up being the one getting a lecture. A lecture about food mind you, but a lecture nonetheless.
It was as if fate was mocking her good intentions. This is why she liked being the disruptive one.
"Hey, are you listening?" Ruby asked the girl, stirring her from her thoughts.
"Yes… unfortunately." Nora replied under her breath.
The louder girl looked at Ruby, ready to respond once more, when she noticed the girl's attention was drawn to something or someone else seemingly behind her. Nora turned to see Jaune approaching the two of them. It was slow, but he was indeed making his way in their general direction.
Thank Oum. She thought to herself. Anymore of this and I might choke someone out.
Without saying any departing words, Nora turned and made her way towards Jaune, leaving Ruby along on the farside of the room. She exchanged a glance with him as they passed each other before muttering a "Good luck" to her team leader. She could see the perspiration on his face; something he also took notice of as he attempted to wipe it away.
Not before long Jaune was once more in front of Ruby as both endeavored to meet the other's gaze.
"Hey, Jaune." Ruby spoke.
"H-Hey, Rubes." He replied with a stammer.
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"Those two are infuriating." Nora nearly yelled as she collapsed at the table with Ren. "Why can't they just talk like normal human beings? Is that so damn hard?!"
"I couldn't agree more." Ren added. "I told him to be a man, get over there, and ask her to dance."
"To dance?" Nora quipped with an eyebrow. " Oh ho, interesting." She said with a sly grin. "Let's see if Jauney-boy has it in him."
They watched as the two attempted casual conversation. There was a nervous chuckle here and moment of silence there, but eventually the two started making strides at conversing properly as time passed.
Nora and Ren smiled as the two team leaders finally started to get past their "moment" from earlier. Before long they were laughing and talking like functioning teen adults once more. Nora only sighed in content as the excruciatingly dull experience ended. Ren had to disclose to her while they waited about what their supposed issue was exactly, only causing further frustration. Who knew trying to be a good friend was such hard work?
Ren on the other hand waited for the two to make their way to the dance floor. So imagine his surprise when Jaune began leading her out of the corner and beyond the dancefloor towards the door. He shook Nora's attention as she also became baffled at what she was seeing. Before long, they exited the event hall altogether.
"Please." Nora spoke to herself, but aloud once again. "Please don't tell me they were just holding hands as they left, meanwhile this became such a big issue earlier."
Ren pulled his scroll from his pocket and began to text Jaune as Nora only sat there in tiresome disbelief.
'Hey, where are you two going? I thought you were going to dance.' He texted.
He waited only a few seconds before he received a response from the blonde stating: 'To go read comics. You said to ask her to "dance or something", and Ruby hates dancing, so we chose this.'
Ren sighed as he put the phone away. Nora noticed his annoyed response and looked toward him.
"What are they doing?" She asked.
"Or something, apparently." He responded with a monotone, knowing this was not the last either one of them would deal with this.
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Well, this has been fun! Thanks for taking your time to check out my stuff and I hope everyone enjoyed the 9 Days of Lancaster event! I look forward to Lancaster Week in September and to updating my current stories, starting with "Who Asked For Your Advice?" in the very near future. Have a good day/night!
GodRealm
