Ren groans after they've finished sliding down the wall, curling up to try and deal with lingering pain of a high speed turkey that went below the belt.

There are some voices, and after a few moments, he can definitely hear Nora's concern, with maybe Pyrrha's hand on his shoulder, and Jaune's gasp of sympathy. Concern.

"-hasn't landed from wherever you sent her too," the blonde is saying when Ren finds himself able to actually focus on what his teammates were saying. "Run and go get a cold compress or something. That'll help with the pain-"

"On it!"

"Ren?" He opened his eyes to see both Jaune and Pyrrha in front of him. "Can you hear us?"

He simply nods, still feeling nauseous. Pyrrha lets out a sigh in relief. "That's good," she notes, holding up a finger. "Mind tracking my finger quickly?"

Sometime during Pyrrha and Jaune's assessment of him, Nora comes back with a cold compress, which Ren gingerly took.

After a few minutes, when he felt comfortable enough to stand and walk, the rest of team JNPR helps him over to a table to sit down at.

"Thanks," he whispers when he's feeling well enough to talk without losing his breakfast. The grins that he gets back make him feel much better.

"Now," Professor Goodwitch says, her no-nonsense tone ringing through the air, "as you're all aware, the first-year dance is right around the corner, and as the host school for the Vytal Festival, tradition says that our best team act as hosts for it."

The room shifts around a tiny bit, and Pyrrha can't help but be a little bit excited about the dance. There's going to be people there! Who she won't be sparring against! No more "strongest student in Remnant", at least for a night.

"The Headmaster has decided that the team with the highest collective grades will have the option to act as hosts, working with the staff to help plan the event, decorate the space, and greet others at the door for the first half hour," Professor Goodwitch continues, looking down at her scroll. "I'm proud to announce that team JNPR has earned the highest grades this semester-"

"Yeah!" Yang shouts, pulling Jaune and Ren into a hug. Pyrrha chuckles at the sight before Nora excitedly hugs her, with the rest of team RWBY joining in quickly.

"And if they want to," the professor continues after it's quieter in the room, "can choose to act as the hosts. Mr. Arc?"

Jaune goes pale. "Uh, team meeting!"

"What's this one about?" Nora asks as she slides back in between Ren and Jaune. "Are you panicking again?"

"Slightly."

Pyrrha sighs. "Jaune," she whispers, because there's really no need to broadcast this conversation to everyone else. "what are you afraid about?"

Jaune takes in a deep breath, and just before he speaks, Ren places a hand over his mouth. "Jaune, we were able to help you with combat, Nora with her studies-"

"Hey, I'm not that scatterbrained-"

"Pyrrha would have accidentally eaten poisoned mushrooms twice without us, and that's not even mentioning how we figured out about my Aura Sensing-"

Jaune hides his face in his hands. "But what if that's all just lucky breaks?" he asks, voice muffled.

Pyrrha looks at Nora and Ren to see that both of them seem to be lost at what to do. "Jaune," she starts, cautiously thinking about what to say next, "what if they weren't?"

Jaune's eye peeks out from the gap between his hands. "What do you mean?"

"What if we're just a really good team who can help each other?"

His hands go down, and she can see that he's trying to apply his more strategic thinking process to her question. "I mean, we have done pretty well so far-"

"Yeah!" Nora says, pumping her fist. "I mean, we made it this entire semester without breaking Cardin's legs! We can totally handle a party!"

"We might need to do a few more study nights," Ren says with a shrug, "but it should be fine."

"It sounds like we all want to do it," Pyrrha notes, lightly tapping Jaune on the shoulder. "Let's try it anyway, what's the worst that could go wrong?"

Jaune smiles. "Right. Let's do it."

Ren has no idea if he wants to murder Jaune, disappear, or awkwardly just kind of listen to the blond while he's getting dressed since all he's wearing right now is a towel.

Thank Grimm that Pyrrha's out of the room right now. He and Nora are pretty close, so it's not too awkward with her in her bed, reading a comic book with headphones on.

"-you are one of my best friends," Jaune says, and Ren appreciates that. "I mean, we've only known each other for a few months, but darn it- I consider you to be the brother I never had!"

Ren can feel one of his eyebrows raise in his confusion. "I thought you had seven siblings?"

"They're six sisters and one sibling- but that's not the point!"

Oh. "And I you! I mean, as a brother."

"Great," Jaune sighs, and it looks like it's one of relief? He's still nervous. "Which is why I wanted to get your advice on… girls?"

"Girls?" Ren asks, seeing his clothes hanging up in the closet next to where he's sitting.

"I just… don't know… how to… girls-" Ren silently grasps the sleeve of his coat and reaches for the hanger as the team leader keeps stumbling through his words. "Um, I guess what I'm asking is how did you and Nora-"

Ren drops the hanger on the ground in surprise, feeling his face grow hot. He's pretty sure that if he made eye contact with Nora right now, she would probably say something about how he matched the pink highlight in his hair.

Nora's laughter is a lot quieter than normal. Embarrassment? "You know, we're not actually together together-"

"Nora, I said headphones on!"

At this point, Ren decides it's best to give up all subtlety, standing up and going over to his dresser to grab everything he needs to get dressed. With practiced modesty, he's quickly able to don everything, sitting back on the bed. "Jaune, what is this all about?"

"It's- well-" Oh dear Grimm, Ren does not have the emotional intelligence to deal with this- "I want to ask Pyrrha to the dance, but I think that I'm already too late."

"What makes you say that?"

"Are you kidding me? She's Pyrrha. Best student at Beacon. People have to be lining up around the block to ask her out."

"Has she said anything about going to the dance with somebody? I don't remember her mentioning it during any of our meetings with the professors."

"No, but come on"-this is a different sigh, definitely lower. Maybe it's sadder? "If Pyrrha doesn't get a date to the dance, I'll wear a dress."

"What's this about wearing a dress?" Pyrrha asks, entering the room. "Sorry for being a bit late, Professor Oobleck was having some trouble with the shades of the banners."

"That's fine!" Nora says, headphones off. "Jaune was just saying that you-"

"Are a wonderful teammate, and person, and-" Jaune's face was really, really red-"that there's probably no need for you to worry about having a partner for the dance!"

Pyrrha smiles. "Oh. Thank you, Jaune. That's nice to hear. I believe you're a wonderful strategist, and I hope that you won't be partnerless at the dance, too."

Ren looks back and forth between the two of them. A lot of nervousness.

He does not have the emotional intelligence to deal with this.

Ren clinks his glass with Jaune and Ruby.

Ruby looks at what the blond's wearing. "You got to wear sneakers with your dress?!"

Jaune sighs. "Nora tried to get me to wear heels. Pyrrha had to stop her."

Ren saw a flash of red appear from the crowd on the dance floor. Nervousness? "I think Pyrrha's trying to get your attention."

"What?!" Jaune nearly dropped his glass of punch, Ruby quickly catching it. "Why?! We aren't anywhere close to the group dance we planned out! I still can't believe that she's here alone! Has she even danced with anybody yet?! I can't be her first dance-"

Ren sighs and catches Nora's glance at them from across the floor. He awkwardly gestures at Jaune and she nods, a smile creeping onto her face.

Thank Deliight that Nora generally understands what he means.

Kick-step, kick-step, body-roll-

Pyrrha saw a hint of a smile on Ren's face as they went through the dance, and the elation at being successful with the choreography. Honestly, once he and Nora dissected it for her, it wasn't that different from fighting!

And Jaune is also such a good dancer. It's interesting to learn new things after being placed on a pedestal for so long. Pyrrha can't help but smile at the thought of learning even more from her teammates.

Nora feels the adrenaline run through her veins as she slams Magnhild down onto a Grimm, and it feels so good to bash in these monster's skulls.

"Nora!"

She quickly turns to see Ren dashing to her, Pyrrha and Jaune not far behind him. Jaune cups his hands around his mouth. "Launch Ren up to the whitehead!"

With a brief glance upwards, she quickly positions her hammer, and as soon as Ren took a step on it, she swung upwards, launching her greyed-out friend directly into the head of the pale snake, hearing a crunch as he hooked himself around it and stabbed it in its eyes.

The rest of the fight goes pretty smoothly, with Jaune keeping an eye out for all of them, herself swinging her hammer around joyfully, Pyrrha being a flexible fighting force, and Ren being the best Grimm fighter in their class thanks to his Semblance.

They're a lean, mean, Grimm fighting machine! This is what Nora always dreamed about after her parents died. It's perfect.

Nothing could ever stop this.