"You mean like… a date?" Jaune asked the question tentatively. He felt like he was making a fool of himself. He worried for a moment that he was misinterpreting her words but the bright and hopeful grin that spread across her face put his worries to rest.
"How about it Jaune? You and me painting the town red, what do you say?" She asked enthusiastically.
Jaune felt like a deer caught in headlights. He was being asked out on a date! A girl was asking him to go on a date! His mind raced with apprehension and excitement intertwined with one another. A date! No girl had ever asked him out on a date before. He was always the one asking girls out, asking and getting shot down. But not right now, not tonight.
"Yeah lets do it," he answered her as his excitement beat down his apprehension. "Saturday we'll dance the night away!" He said with far more confidence than he actually felt.
"Yay!" Neon cheered, pulling him into a quick hug. Her enthusiasm was a little overwhelming, was she really so excited to go out with him?
They walked together towards the door, Neon hung off his arm rolling on her skates beside him as they walked. It seemed a little much to Jaune considering they weren't exactly anything official but he could hardly complain about it. It felt nice.
They exited the diner and all eyes went to the two of them. Jaune felt a flush of embarrassment as everyone looked at the two of them. Neon squeezed his arm tighter and beamed.
"Ready to go?" Jaune asked the group as he wondered just what he should say pertaining to the faunus girl hanging off his arm. He looked at everyone glancing their way and noticed a missing face.
"Where's Penny?" He asked, glancing around again.
"Penny had to leave," Weiss explained, "she got a call about some kind of emergency and needed to leave."
"Aww," Neon whined, "that's too bad, I needed to thank her for helping me."
"Helping you?" Jaune asked her as they started down the sidewalk for the bullhead pickup. "You talk to her about this?"
Neon nodded, "Mm-hmm, I asked her if you happened to be dating anybody," she explained happily, "I was a little worried you might've already been taken and I didn't want to step on anybody's toes, especially if it was blondies."
Jaune went a little red at that. Dating Yang was only possible in his wildest dreams. "Nah, there's no one like that," he assured her, "I uh… I've never really had a girlfriend, or went on a date."
"What?!" Neon exclaimed, earning a couple of glances from his friends. He would have expected Nora to be a little more hyper and excited to see a girl on his arm but his teammate only showed a mild sense of amusement. "Seriously a stud like you? No girlfriend? No dates? Like ever?" She pressed him.
"Well I wasn't really a knock out with the ladies at Beacon," Jaune explained to her deciding that it would probably be tactless to mention the present company he had relentlessly pursued, strangely enough he had caught Weiss looking in their direction now and then. He wondered what that was about. "After Beacon I didn't really have a lot of time or opportunities for romance."
That felt like a massive understatement. After Pyrrha he hadn't exactly put much thought towards it period. On the road with Ruby and his teammates he hadn't exactly been meeting very many people, Ruby felt like a little sister to him and Nora and Ren were together together despite her insistence that they weren't. When he remembered how much he fretted about going to the dance and trying to earn Weiss's affection. Now it seemed so distant and small to him.
"Well aren't I a lucky gal nabbing you," she said flattering him. "But seriously? I have a hard time believing you didn't catch any girl's attention."
"Well I caught one," Jaune admitted, "but I didn't notice... until it was too late."
Neon's bright features dulled at his words and she gave his arm a comforting squeeze. "I understand," she told him, softening a bit, "you don't need to explain more if you don't want to."
Jaune nodded, "thanks… let's not talk about that right now."
Neon nodded in agreement respecting his desires to avoid that particular topic. They walked together in relative silence as they reached the landing zone for the bullheads to take them back to Atlas. They sat together and exchanged idle chatter throughout the flight. It felt surreal just how easily he was able to comfortably talk to her. It felt a little strange to have her clutching his arm but it still felt nice all the same. The attention was certainly pleasant if a little strange, he hadn't really ever had anyone show such open interest to him.
The bullhead touched down on the academy landing pad and they stepped off and migrated towards the dorm rooms. "We part here," Jaune said as they reached his dorm room. Team RWBY didn't bother to wait up and say their goodbyes and instead left. Flynt bid them farewell with a quiet tip of his hat, only Ren and Nora waited up as he spoke with Neon.
"That's too bad," Neon pouted playfully, "I suppose I'll have to wait for Saturday night to have some more of you."
Jaune grinned nervously at her. "You can always text me if you want, Flynt has my number."
Neon grinned at that, "I'll do that," she promised.
Jaune scratched the back of his head, "I'll see you Saturday."
Neon beamed but extended her arm poking his chest with her index finger. "You better suit up blondie, cuz I'll be dressed to kill."
Neon gave him a suggestive wink before turning with a flick of her cat tail and leaving with a sway of her hips. Jaune gulped as he watched her leave.
"Take a picture Jaune," Nora said, "it'll last longer."
Jaune blinked and realized he was staring at an empty hallway. "Sorry," he apologized, "I just… I didn't expect this to happen tonight."
"It certainly was unforeseen," Ren commented as they began walking for their own dorm.
"Do you like her?" Nora asked him carefully.
"I guess I'm going to find out," Jaune answered her, "I mean that is what people do on dates right? Get to know each other?"
Nora nodded, "Yup," she said, "that's what people usually do on dates."
Nora's reaction to him scoring a date for Saturday night seemed rather muted to him. It had in fact been rather strange that even team RWBY hadn't offered much comment to him having a suddenly busy Saturday night or Neon hanging off his arm.
"Are you excited?" Ren asked him as they reached their dorm room and stepped in.
Jaune nodded, "yeah," he answered him honestly, it's just… I have really but a lot of thought towards relationships lately, I'm just feeling a little blindsided."
"I'll say," Nora commented as she opened the drawer for some pajamas. "I wasn't expecting you to go out with her of all people, those moms would have been less of a surprise."
"I told you Nora, it's not like that, they're just friendly," Jaune s as he grabbed his own pajamas to get ready for bed and to wake up early again.
"Uh huh," Nora said, clearly unconvinced.
In moments they had all changed into their sleepwear and settled into their bunks. Laying in the dark Jaune stared at the ceiling of his bunk contemplating his coming date. It felt surreal to him, he tried imagining himself in the coming Saturday dancing it up with Neon. Dancing was at least something he knew he was capable of, hell he was actually pretty good at it. Everything else seemed worrying. He needed to get a suit, everything he had to wear was for huntsman missions or sleepwear like he had on. What would they talk about? What if she didn't like him? What if she did? What if she wanted to become an official couple?
Why did that worry him?
His scroll beeped softly and he reached over for it. The screen flowed brightly in the dark and he took a moment to squint and let his eyes adjust to the light. It was a text message but it wasn't from a listed number. He opened it.
A grinning Neon looked at him from a selfie photo, one green eye closed in a wink. She was laying down on a bunk just like wearing an attractive set of panamas, a night shirt hugged her figure enticingly and a pair of sleep shorts exposed her shapely legs. He looked down at the text beneath her alluring photo.
NOW YOU GOT MY NUMBER AND A PIC FOR MY CONTACT PAGE. SWEET DREAMS STUD!
She was certainly forward to say the least. He briefly wondered if she was expecting a selfie of himself and decided to risk it and flashed a photo of himself. Nothing sexy, he wasn't sure he could pull that off, but he smiled at the camera and sent it to her.
SWEET DREAMS NEON
He hit send and wondered if he should have tried calling her something flattering like she had. He supposed it was too late now and she had likely viewed his selfie and read the text. He set his scroll down and rolled away, closing his eyes. Everything about this felt new and exciting, but equally distressing and scary too. Was he ready for this?
He slowly managed to find sleep as his mind buzzed with Neon and his coming date.
Penny had rushed out of the diner before Jaune and Neon could catch her eavesdropping on them. Thankfully she had been able to find Weiss and ask her to lie on her behalf, she told her to simply tell Jaune that she had been called away on an emergency that required her attention. Her jet boots couldn't rocket her away from that place fast enough.
She had flown a lap around the city looking for anything that could require her attention. Sadly there was nothing to be detected on her police scanner, no thefts or vehicle collisions, nothing to distract her.
After a fruitless hour trying to find something to take her mind off Jaune she relented and returned to Atlas. There was a bitter irony to it, ever since Ruby had come to Atlas she had desired more and more free time to devote with her friends, with Jaune. But now when what she wanted more than anything was to bury herself in work she couldn't find anything to distract her from this hollow feeling in her chest.
With her options limited she made way for the only place she could think of. She strolled down the hallways making a beeline for Team RWBY's room. Weiss was the one that opened the door for her.
"I thought you might come by," Weiss said as Penny uncharacteristically strolled inside and right past her.
"You all know about what happened?" Penny asked them. The team sat around in their pajamas and on their respective bunks looking at her.
"Yeah we noticed," Yang said scratching her mane of blonde hair. "It was kind of hard no to with her hanging off of him. It's official, Jaune clearly has an uncanny habit of attracting green eyed redheads, yourself included."
"What do I do?" Penny asked, ignoring Yang and addressing the rest of the team as she stood in the middle of the room. "Jaune said yes," she rambled to them, "she asked him out and he said yes to her, he wants to go out with her, what do I do?"
Everyone of the girls looked at her quietly as she eyed them all hoping for answers. "I don't know," Ruby answered, releasing a sorrowful sigh, "I don't think there's really anything we can do."
"There has to be something!" Penny exclaimed. "I… I should find Neon, do what Weiss said and tell her about my feelings, she might back off, cancel the date."
"I suggested that before she asked him out," Weiss clarified, "I don't think that's a good idea now that she asked him out or accepted."
"That wouldn't be very fair to Neon, Penny," Blake explained, "and honestly it wouldn't be very fair to Jaune either, he said yes, he wants to go on this date."
"What about if I tell Jaune the truth?" Penny suggested, there had to be an answer to this, some way of stopping it.
"Penny," Weiss sighed at her, "I think Jaune has enough on his plate already," she explained. "I know this is hard but you have to think about Jaune's feelings, he's gone through a lot and dropping a bombshell on him like that would only confuse him."
Penny clenched her fists shaking as she spoke, "why are you against me?!"
"Hey!" Yang barked. "We're not against you Penny but Jaune is our friend too and we want him to be happy!"
"But Jaune should be-," Penny stammered under the blonde's heated stare.
"With you!?" Yang interrupted. "If you really care about him Penny then you'll want him to be happy, even if it's not with you!"
Penny turned away from her faltering under her intense stare. "She just… she swooped in, it is not fair!" She argued feeling her volatile concoction of emotions boiling up.
"Fair?!" Yang retorted stepping off her bunk. "You had every opportunity to be honest with Jaune! You could have asked him out anytime in the last week and a half, that sounds pretty fair to me Penny. The only thing Neon is guilty of is having the courage to do what you couldn't!"
Penny turned away and faced the empty wall. She wanted to cry, she wanted to run away. She had no words, Yang was right.
"I know this sucks Penny," Yang told her, stepping close. Her voice had softened and she put her hands on her shoulders comfortingly.
"It hurts!" Penny told her clutching her chest. "It actually hurts. Why does it hurt?"
"Because love doesn't always work out like we'd like it to Penny." Yang told her, pulling her into her arms. Penny remained facing the wall as the blonde embraced her from behind. "Sometimes the things that give us the most joy can cause us the most pain."
"How do I make it stop?" Penny asked her.
"You don't," Yang sighed, "sorry but all you can do let it fade."
"There has to be something I can do!" Penny insisted, "if I can not stop this then I can at least stop it from hurting so much."
"You could stop caring about Jaune," Yang suggested, "do you think you could do that?"
Penny was silent as she considered that. Stop caring about Jaune? The idea sounded impossible to her, and even if she was capable of it the very idea felt wrong in every way. Even if Jaune did not share her feeling she knew he cared for her too, the idea sounded like a betrayal to her. And the very thought of not caring for his happiness, of feeling indifferent to his smile was unthinkable. "No," Penny answered her. She turned around in Yang's grasp and returned the hug, she really needed a hug.
The rest of team RWBY had stood up from their bunks and crowded around the two of them adding themselves into the hug. It at least felt good to have her friends here offering her what comfort they could. After a minute of their group hug the five of them split apart and the various teammates returned to sitting on their respective bunks. Penny took a seat in a chair and tried her best to relax, finding herself a little eased thanks to Yang.
"If I may give my thoughts on the matter," Weiss said once everyone was settled in and comfortable. "This might not be very serious, Jaune and Neon are going on a date, but they're not dating yet."
Blake nodded in agreement, "that is true, I do not want you to get your hopes up Penny but we do not even know how things are going to go."
Weiss nodded in agreement, "exactly, this is just one date and anything can happen, and I don't think Neon is Jaune's type."
"If she is not his type then why did he agree to the date?" Penny asked her.
"I don't know," Weiss said, shrugging her shoulders. "It's not like I've ever known Jaune to date around a lot. He might not exactly know his type but I doubt it's someone as loud and eccentric as Neon."
Yang chuckled, "also she's super annoying, if Jaune can stand to date someone as hyperactive and mouthy as Neon then he has a stronger character than I've given him credit for."
Penny smiled at that. Yang's sense of humor wasn't always to her taste but it did ease the tension when it worked. She looked over at Ruby who was actively listening from the comfort of her bed but has been rather quiet for the majority of the conversation.
"What do you think Ruby?" Penny asked looking to her best friend for some wisdom.
Ruby blinked as her friend looked to her and blushed a bit. "I uh… I don't know if I'm really qualified to give you any advice on romance Penny, I don't really have a lot of expierence with that sort of things."
"But you are Jaune's friend," Penny reasoned, "surely you must have some thoughts to contribute."
Ruby sighed, "Penny… you're both my friends, and I'd love for the two of you to find each other… but honestly I'm happy for Jaune right now. I wasn't sure if he was ready for any kind of a relationship, he might still not be ready. But that Jaune simply took a step forward today is good, it means he's healing and I need you to understand how important that is."
Penny gave her friend a nod, "I understand Ruby, I just wish Jaune could have taken that step forward with me."
"We would have all liked that Penny," Ruby assured her. "But as Jaune's friend I need to think about what's best for him, so right now that means I need to support this date and whatever comes of it, and you should too."
Penny nodded, "alright Ruby, I will try."
Hello everyone I hope you enjoyed this week's chapter. I managed to get the majority of my writing done before heading to the coast for the weekend and finished the rest while relaxing. As usual please leave your thoughts and opinions in the reviews. I'd like to thank MidKnightMoonglow99 and MajorBrony95 for listening to my ideas and helping me center them. See you all next week.