Jaune walks back into school the following morning with such purpose, it takes him two periods to notice the way the crowds of students in the hallways part in front of him like the wrong end of a magnet. When he puzzles as to why he's not getting his typical amount of harassment, Rawaya has to point out to him that his notoriety seems to have peaked with the appearance of his team. Even those who would regularly find him approachable for favors or paparazzi-style questions seem to be staying out of his way upon remembering the hunter friends he'd paraded around for all to see. It's a nice change of pace as it deters almost everyone from talking to him. Almost.

Carnelia slides into the seat beside him at lunch before either Rawaya or Amarilla can find him. Jaune glances up from reviewing notes on his scroll. Passing all of his end-of-semester exams had been one of his father's stipulations for reapplying to Beacon. He was expected to get high marks on every exam so that he looked as capable on paper as he did in person.

"Studying hard?" she asks.

Jaune closes his scroll and sighs. "Hey, Carnelia."

She crosses her legs at the ankle. "Did you hear about the breach?"

Jaune heard about it thirty minutes before the news alerts starting lighting up everyone's scrolls. He'd received a text from Nora saying RWBY was okay but that all hell was breaking loose at Beacon. JNPR had arrived in time with team CFVY and with the professors' help, they'd made short work of the terror attack. Jaune had been glued to his phone since third period.

"Yeah," he says, "I got live updates from my...friend." His heart stutters at the thought of calling them his team again, but he fears jinxing it before it's official.

Carnelia watches him. Jaune sips his juice box and tries not to look her straight in the eye.

"Pyrrha Nikos is really your girlfriend, huh?"

Jaune chokes on his straw. Carnelia does nothing to help as Jaune clears his airway and tries to find words for his mouth.

"She's not...she's, she's Pyrrha," he splutters, "and she— We're just partners. Were! We were teammates."

He has no idea what to do with the flat stare Carnelia is giving him. "You were at Lanse's place yesterday, right?" she asks. "That's wasn't some Jaune Arc lookalike I saw sitting at the bar all night?"

"Carnelia—"

"Flirting with Pyrrha Nikos. Dancing with Pyrrha Nikos. Ashton's friend said he saw you with your hand on her ass and Crystal—"

"Carnelia!" Jaune wants to die. He wants to spontaneously combust. "I don't— We weren't— I did not touch her...butt." Where was a Grimm breach at his school when he needed it? "Yes, I'm friends with Pyrrha, but we're not… not anything, okay?"

Raising a brow, Carnelia deadpans, "You're not fooling anyone, Jaune."

"I'm not—!" He spots Rawaya and Amarilla walking towards his table with their lunches and waves them over. "Ama, Rawa. Tell Carnelia I'm not…" He drops his voice. "Pyrrha is just a friend."

Amarilla rolls her eyes. "He and Pyrrha Nikos are disgustingly platonic."

Rawaya looks between him and Amarilla and says, "Wait, are you not together-together?"

Betrayed by his own kin, Jaune glares at his sisters. "No, I was not and am not in a relationship with Pyrrha Nikos."

He turns to restate this to Carnelia, but the auburn-haired girl is already standing and sashaying away from Jaune's table, looking too smug for her own good. "Thanks for the clarification, Arc."

Frantic, Jaune turns back to Rawaya and Amarilla. "Why did you say that?! She's going to tell everyone!"

Amarilla looks legitimately confused by her brother's tone. "Is it the worst thing in the world if people think you have a hot, famous girlfriend?"

Jaune gestures to Carnelia's retreating back. "The tabloids will have a field day if she opens her big mouth to someone looking for dirt on Pyrrha! The Vytal Festival is in two weeks!"

Amarilla frowns at this. "You're junior hunters. Do people really care about that?"

With a look of unwavering determination, Rawaya hands her tray of food off to Amarilla, takes a deep breath, and marches over to Carnelia and her table full of friends. Between the distance and his heart hammering in his ears, Jaune doesn't hear what she says. He can only watch from his seat as small, shy Rawaya talks animatedly with the most popular girls and guys in school.

In a few minutes, she's walking back to them and Jaune has to resist the urge to jump up from the table and accost her. Rawaya collapses into her seat, all social energy drained out of her, and drops her forehead to the table. Amarilla helpfully slides her tray of food in front of her.

"What happened? What did you say?" Jaune whispers.

Rawaya groans. "I told her that you and Pyrrha Nikos are dating."

"Rawa, that is the opposite of what I needed you to do!"

"I said it was super duper secret and very hush hush. I might have bluffed that I had Pyrrha Nikos on speed dial. I may have lead Carnelia to believe that if she confirmed the relationship with anyone, I would give a very angry and very lethal Pyrrha Nikos the directions to her house."

Jaune blinks at his sister. "You threatened Carnelia? With Pyrrha?"

"I am so sorry," she mumbles into the table.

With a moan, Jaune faceplants into the table himself. "Why didn't you just tell her Pyrrha and I weren't together?"

"She was not going to believe me," Rawaya says, lifting her head to look at Jaune. "I would not believe myself."

Amarilla watches Jaune over the rim of her pudding cup. "To be fair, Rawa didn't have much of a chance. Even Lanse thought you were an item, and he's Mr. People Reader."

"Wait," Jaune's head snaps up. "Does the entire school think Pyrrha is my girlfriend?!"

Amarilla makes a seesaw gesture with her hand. Rawaya says, reassuringly, "Only the half that thinks you are cool."

Jaune scrubs a hand across his face and takes three of the deepest breathes he can. Two more weeks of school, he chants to himself. Two weeks then this would all be behind him. He ducks his head back down to resume reviewing his notes. "Thanks for trying, guys."

Jaune spends the next few days studying for exams and practicing every night with Amarilla in the barn — this time with Crocea Mors and his armor — until his father comes home and officially breaks the news to his mother.

It's almost funny how Jaune knows the exact moment that it happens, when his mother comes into his room as he's studying in bed and sits with him. Mrs. Arc says nothing right away. Jaune struggles to concentrate on his notes as the unspoken conversation hangs between them. Then she pulls Jaune into her arms, holding him tight, and makes him promise to stay safe and be smart and come home to her. Hugging his mother back, Jaune promises that he will, whether or not he can keep any such promise.

His father, true to his word, knocks on his door about an hour later and tells him to gear up and meet him in the barn. Mrs. Arc releases him so he can stand and strap on his armor. Tentative, Jaune asks if she'd like to come watch. She takes his face in her hands, smiling sadly, and says next time. She'll need a little while to get used to her son being a hunter like his father. Jaune hugs her one more time before heading out to the barn.

They start with a sparring match so Mr. Arc can assess where his son is in skill level. Jaune is pleasantly surprised to discover that while Pyrrha was indeed going easy on him, she wasn't going that easy on him. That being said, the following week of training with his dad is completely different than anything he'd done with Pyrrha or Goodwich. Mr. Arc gets Jaune thinking about things he'd never considered.

He points out that Jaune fights with Pyrrha's fighting style. It's not a bad technique, Mr. Arc says, but it only works effectively if Jaune has Pyrrha's flexibility and Pyrrha's strike precision. Jaune has the advantage of trusting his upper body strength and his aura more than his partner can, and Mr. Arc shows him how to utilize that. His father drills Jaune on defensive techniques to compliment Pyrrha's more offense-focused style until some of their sparring matches end up with Jaune dancing out of his father's reach for as long as he possibly can without making a single offensive move himself. The training is a hundred times more intense and targeted than anything he ever attempted on his own or at Beacon.

Jaune loves every second of it.

As the semester finishes up, Jaune passes all his classes and makes it through the days with minimal harassment. He tactfully avoids mentioning that he won't be back next semester when Carnelia and Crystal ask what he's doing for the break. When the final bell rings, he waves at them cheerily before departing from school for the last time.

That night, as he heads to the kitchen for some juice, he overhears Amarilla and Flava fighting in the living room. At Jaune's request, Amarilla had only told their parents about the Vytal Festival tickets, but it seems that Flava went into Amarilla's drawers for some makeup and found out. The tickets have been sold out for months and Flava is trying to buy or bargain the ticket from Amarilla with the argument that the younger Arc was going for enjoyment, while Flava had a laundry list of career connections she could be making with those in attendance.

Jaune sighs from his spot out-of-sight on the stairs. He'd already been feeling guilty about only being able to bring Amarilla along, especially after what Rawaya had done for him with Carnelia. But, then again, Flava had let him use her scroll and break grounding when Pyrrha was trying to reach him, and Gia had kept quiet about the Ursa incident and gotten him back his own scroll. In their own ways, they'd all helped. Jaune sends Pyrrha a text message, lamenting that he couldn't bring all his sisters to the Vytal Festival. Could she ask around if any of their classmates didn't use both their tickets to friends and family? Did anyone have a spare he could have?

The next day, an overnight envelope arrives at the front door addressed to Jaune. There are four tickets inside, two with Nora's name and two with Ren's, and a handwritten note. It says: If you send these back, I'll break your legs.

He pins one ticket to Rawaya's poster wall and puts the second one under the paperweight holding down Flava's job applications. He puts the remaining two on Gia's pillow, right beside the calendar indicating her six month anniversary landed only three days short of the Vytal Festival.

Jaune texts his thanks to Ren and Nora, but his fingers hesitate over Pyrrha's glowing face.

He'd been messaging Pyrrha regularly, or at least as regularly as he had before she'd come visit. It was nice not having to text her in the dead of night anymore, and he could call or video chat without having to worry about getting caught. And yet…

Every time he even thought about talking to her, his heart did this soaring loop that never used to happen. When he imagined her face close to his, his hands got clammy. He tried to call her once to tell her about the latest developments in X-Ray and Vav and found himself rehearsing what he was going to say before she picked up. Then, feeling self-conscious and stupid, he hastily hung up and quickly sent a message apologizing for the butt dial. As soon as Pyrrha was reassured through text, Jaune crawled under his bed with his pillow and screamed into it.

What was wrong with him? He loved Pyrrha like he loved Nora and Ren and all his sisters. He didn't care that she was beautiful and brave and talented and kind and brilliant. Well, he didcare, but he never liked her because of it. He liked her because all those things made herPyrrha . He liked her because...he liked her. Oh no, he liked her-liked her.

He was going to see her in less than a week, what was he going to do?! Pyrrha knew him better than anyone. She'd know the moment she saw him that something was up. Would she think he was obsessed just like all those fans that put her posters up on their walls and hounded her for autographs when she got out of taxis? He was going to make everything awkward and awful just when he got her back.

Jaune makes a dying animal noise from where he's balled up under his sheets. Amarilla comes over to pet his hip.

"There there," she says. "Only a few more days until you're back at your elite hunting school with four of your sisters in tow to humiliate you."

Another distressed noise comes from under the sheets.

Finally, the morning of the first day of the Vytal Festival arrives.

The airship is late.

Jaune paces the port, willing the ship to arrive faster. All around him are others on their way for the festivities in Vale, chatting with each other about their favorite teams and the upcoming matchups.

Gia's metalsmith boyfriend, Rusty, watches Jaune do laps at a speed-walk. "Do you wanna sit down, man?"

Flava rolls her eyes. "Leave him. He'll tire out."

Rawaya balances the dozen posters she's made and bound with twine under one arm as she checks the time on her scroll nervously. "Will we miss the first matchup?"

Jaune clenches and unclenches his fists as he walks. "We can't! The first matchup is RWBY vs ABRN, we've got to be there!"

Gia and Amarilla walk back from having talked to the station master. Gia sits next to Rusty and says, "It should be here soon. They had to gas up."

"Jaune," Amarilla says, snapping in his face to get him to stop moving. "Relax. You're making the rest of us nervous."

"We're gonna be late," he frets. He grabs his sister by the shoulders. "What if we miss RWBY? JNPR is right after, I can't miss my own team!"

Someone on the port points up to the sky with a cheer and Jaune whirls around to see the ship coming in for a landing. He sprints to the front of the boarding line. The airship ride is worse than usual. Between his regular airsickness and the worries about missing the matchup and the nerves about seeing Pyrrha again, Jaune spends the entire trip hunched over a garbage bin. They don't land nearly soon enough; the airship arrives at Amity Colosseum just as team RWBY is being announced.

"I'll meet up with you at the hotel!" Jaune calls over his shoulder, rushing towards the stands despite what the action does to his already out-of-control vertigo. Rawaya and Amarilla follow him close behind.

The stadium is packed, but they find an aisle with a decent view. Jaune is unable to immediately appreciate it. As soon as he's sitting, Amarilla forces his head between his knees with instructions to stay down until his vision stops swimming.

Rawaya unfurls her Team RWBY sign and between their commentary and the booming voices of Port and Oobleck, Jaune gets a very clear picture of the action until he can finally lift his head. Then he's cheering on his friends with more gusto than anyone around them. He isn't even a little surprised when RWBY soundly defeats their challengers.

Once the fanfare has died down and the teams have left the arena, the colosseum starts to turn over for the next competition and Jaune stands up.

"Where are you going?" Rawaya asks. "Your team is up next and we have great seats."

"They're on in a hour," Jaune corrects. "I want to see them before and wish them luck."

"Don't wish them too much luck," Amarilla says teasingly as Jaune leaves. He has no idea what she's talking about.

He sends a text to their group chat. Nora texts back that they're grabbing a quick lunch with RWBY. Grinning from ear to ear, Jaune says he's on his way.

Between catching the shuttle to the fairgrounds and trying to be sneaky as to not to give away the surprise too soon, Jaune spots the designated noodle booth just as RWBY and JNPR are halfway through their bowls. RWBY are all sitting in a line and facing away from his approach.

"I think we did rather well, all things considered," he hears Weiss saying.

"Psh, what fight were you watching," Yang jokes. "We were amazing!"

Ruby thrusts her chopsticks up in the air. "Another flawless victory for Team RWBY!"

Jaune calls, "I don't know about flawless. I think I saw two of Yang's hairs out of place."

In the blink of an eye, he's knocked off his feet with the force of Ruby's tackle-hug. The momentum sends them skidding across the fairgrounds, to the startled sounds of various festival patrons, until they come to a stop against a weaponsmith's booth.

"Jaune! You're here! You're back! You came back!" Ruby squeals, squeezing his midsection. She scrambles upright to sit on his legs. "Did you see our match?!"

Flat on his back, it takes Jaune a moment to shake off the disorientation and catch his breath. Then he's smiling so wide it hurts his face. "Did I see you?" Jaune teases. "Did I see you use a four-person team move to win by hat trick?!"

"Wasn't it amazing?" Ruby preens. "We only practiced that move once! It doesn't even have a name yet! I was thinking Ice Wave, but that really doesn't do justice to everyone's contributions."

Jaune sits up. "Right Hook Tsunami?"

Ruby coos, "Ooooh, I like that one! I was also considering—"

"Alright, alright," Yang laughs, lifting Ruby off of Jaune by her cape. "Let the rest of us get in."

Yang plunks her sister down back on her feet and offers Jaune a hand up.

"Hey, Yang, it's great to—"

The brawler yanks him into a bear hug. "Welcome back, Vomit Boy! Airship rides just haven't been the same without you."

Over the sound of his spine cracking, Jaune wheezes, "Missed you too," and waves at a deeply amused Blake over Yang's shoulder.

As Yang sets him down, Weiss walks over, both hands on her hips, her expression critical. "Do your parents know you're here?"

Jaune dusts himself off and pulls his festival ticket out of his pocket. "I got the full endorsement."

"Oh." She sounds genuinely surprised. "So...you got your family issue sorted out?"

Jaune rubs the back of his neck. "Took a while, but yeah."

Weiss huffs. "It usually does."

"They didn't think I was hunter material," Jaune says with a shy smile. "Imagine that."

He doesn't expect Weiss to mirror the smile. He's even less prepared when, after a brief hesitation, she offers him her hand. "Welcome back to the madness, Arc. You should have escaped while you had the chance."

Jaune shakes her hand after a beat. He realizes he's been given a perfect opportunity to flirt. Weiss is looking as beautiful as ever and she's being nice! Teasing him, even. He opens his mouth to compliment her on her earrings or her dress, but all the clever things that used to come so easily to him around Weiss are suddenly nowhere to be found. His heart should be fluttering; his words should be tumbling. But none of it is happening. All he wants to do is say thank you and perhaps marvel at the oddity that family disappointment is something they seem to have in common. It's the strangest thing.

"Wait, so does that mean...?" Ruby looks between Jaune and her teammates. "Are you back to stay?"

"That depends how I do on the entrance exam. But if it all goes well…" Jaune shrugs and smiles.

She cheers. "This is great! It'll be just like our first semester! RWBY and JNPR back together again! Taking on the—" Ruby freezes. She gasps and whirls around to Jaune's teammates, all of whom are still sitting at the noodle booth. "You knew he was coming!"

Nora smirks. "Maaaaaaybe."

Ren shrugs. "Surprise."

Pyrrha is occupied by her food, but her shoulders shake with quiet laughter.

"Have you have lunch?" Blake asks him. "It's on Pyrrha."

Before Jaune can answer, Ruby and Yang are dragging him by each arm in the direction of the noodle booth. They deposit him into the corner seat between Yang and Pyrrha before resuming their own lunches.

"Long time no see," Jaune says to his team.

Ren rolls his eyes good-naturedly. Nora reaches across Pyrrha to smack his arm.

Pyrrha giggles and finishes her mouthful of noodles to smile at him. "Long time, indeed."

She's got some broth at the corner of her lips. Normally, Jaune would mention it or reflexively brush it off himself with a napkin. It's what he should be doing instead of staring intently at her mouth.

Pyrrha flushes pink, holding up a hand to her face. "Do I have something in my teeth?"

"Yes," Jaune says quickly. "Just a little— Uh, here." He reaches for the jar of water in the corner of the booth to refill her cup — and knocks it over into the booth with a soggy crash of glass on astroturf.

Yang snorts and calls him Butterfingers. Pyrrha blinks at him.

"I'll have what she's having," Jaune tells the glaring shopkeep, pointing to Pyrrha's bowl and desperately hoping no one heard his voice squeak.

Team RWBY is more than willing to distract him from his self-sabotage with stories. Blake and Yang catch him up on the full details of the breach, while Ruby teases him mercilessly about his Pumpkin Pete's hoodie. Jaune sheepishly explains that with all her good intentions, his mother talked him out of bringing his armor or Crocea Mors. She made him promise he'd be strictly civilian for the festival. As they talk and eat, Jaune's seating placement makes it easy to catch up with everyone. Jaune tries to address his team a normal amount, especially as Nora excitedly includes their own contributions to stopping the breach, but every time he looks their way, the first thing he sees his Pyrrha, and his heart does this thump-thump so loud, he's sure the whole fairgrounds can hear it.

Jaune nervously scarfs down his noodle bowl and ends up sprawled over the counter with a stomach ache as the rest of them finish eating. Ruby asks the competing members of JNPR if they're ready for their fight.

Nora scoffs proudly. "Of course! Look at us! We're a tournament champion, a ninja, and I'm the physical embodiment of that saying about amazing things coming in small packages! Besides," she points over at Jaune, "we've got the best moral support any team could ask for!"

He gives her a weak thumbs up and does his best to moan quietly. Nora goes on about winning and losing prospects, but Jaune tunes her out in an attempt to quell his nausea. Maybe he shouldn't have eaten so much after spending most of the last two hours puking on an upset stomach. He feels a comforting hand rub up and down his back. It takes him a moment to abruptly realize that it's Pyrrha's.

Jaune bolts to his feet like a startled cat, knocking his chair over backwards and bringing whatever Weiss was saying to an awkward stop.

"Oh, gosh, is that the time?" Jaune rambles, digging frantically for his scroll as his friends all stare at him. "Aren't you guys due on any minute now?"

As if on cue, Port and Oobleck's voices crackle out over the intercom system requesting their presence in the arena.

The members of RWBY wish JNPR the best of luck. Nora stands, salutes Team RWBY and punches Jaune in the shoulder, before turning to head for the airship docks with Ren in tow. Pyrrha stands as well, but hesitates at Jaune's elbow.

"Are you alright?"

Jaune shoves his hands in his pockets and leans his hip against the tabletop in a desperate attempt to look casual. "I'm perfect! I'm fine! Just a little stomach ache from the flight. Don't worry about me."

"Just a stomach ache?" Pyrrha asks tentatively.

"Yeah! You know me. Me in ships." He laughs a little too loudly.

Pyrrha looks him up and down and rubs her arm. "Alright...if you're sure…"

Jaune screams at himself to get it together. His team is about to compete for the first time in a tournament setting. The last thing Pyrrha needs is to be distracted with the worry that Jaune has lost the ability to function like a normal person.

"Okay, maybe I'm...nervous," he mumbles. "Four versus three doesn't seem very fair. I wish I could be out there with you guys."

"You are here." Pyrrha glances down and smooths out the invisible creases on her skirt. "It means a lot that you came."

"Well, you mean a lot to me," Jaune says, feeling the heat crawl up his face. "All of you. You're going to do great."

Pyrrha smiles at him just as the intercom overhead crackles back to life.

"While we appreciate the flair for the dramatic here at Beacon," Dr. Oobleck's voice rings out,"any minute now that Team JNPR can make an appearance would be greatly beneficial to the blood pressure of all of us here in the booth."

"Knock 'em dead!" Jaune blurts and gives Pyrrha a quick hug, then trots a few steps back. "I'm gonna—" he points to the colosseum, "with my sisters. Look for me in the audience, okay? I'll meet up with you guys after."

Pyrrha smiles at him a little wider, then nods before jogging after Ren and Nora.

Jaune turns back to Team RWBY, to ask if they should go, and finds that Blake has leapt across the table to clamp both her hands over Yang's unnervingly gleeful smile. Weiss is staring at Jaune a little like Carnelia did when she hardly recognized him. Ruby is the only one that looks as confused as he does.

"Are we...going up?" Jaune asks.

"Yes," Blake says, very firmly, as she struggles to keep Yang shut up. "Tell your sisters they can sit with us."

Jaune does precisely that. Amarilla and Rawaya come down to the student section and introduce themselves to Team RWBY. Well, Jaune has to introduce Rawaya as she seems incapable of talking or making eye contact. The seven of them get front row seats to the action. Jaune sits next to Amarilla and watches in confusion as Blake all but wrestles Yang out of the seat to his left.

"Aw, come on!" Yang whines. "Like you aren't dying to know!"

"Let him support his team in peace," Blake says calmly, settling in next to Jaune with a bowl of popcorn. "You have the rest of the festival to interrogate him."

Yang points to her own eyes and then to Jaune's as she sits between her sister and Weiss. Jaune gives Blake a bewildered look. She shrugs at him unhelpfully.

As the announcers start hyping up the crowd, Jaune feels boots prop up over the back of his chair. A blonde monkey's tail swipes a handful of popcorn from Blake's bowl, and Jaune turns in his seat to find Sun and Neptune getting comfortable in the row behind them.

"'Sup, Arc? Heard you were back," Sun says, tossing popcorn into his mouth.

"Yeah, hey," Jaune greets. He'd met Sun once, right before he had to leave last semester. While Sun had certainly left an impression, Jaune hadn't thought it had been mutual. "You...heard I was back?"

"Like two minutes ago," Sun explains. Blake swats his tail away when he tries for a second grab of popcorn. "We can't get any of these girls to shut up about you, man. How do you do it?"

"No, seriously," Neptune says, lowering his feet from the top of Jaune's chair and leaning forward to whisper,"tell us how."

Weiss scoffs loudly and waves a dismissive hand in Neptune's direction. "Jaune, this is Neptune Vasilias."

Politely overlooking Weiss's icy tone and Neptune's wince, Jaune attempts a cheery sounding, "Nice to meet you. These are my sisters, Amarilla and—"

Rawaya stands straight as a board, pivots, and flees from the area as fast as she possibly can. Sun and Neptune exchange a puzzled look.

Amarilla smiles sweetly at them. "She's a fan."

"Gah! They're coming out!" Ruby squeals as the announcers introduce Team JNPR. She rushes over to swipe up Rawaya's poster and the group of them all stand and cheer. From the arena, Nora, Ren, and Pyrrha turn their way and wave. No one cheers louder than Jaune.

Jaune sits on his former mattress, recapping the fight with his team after their close match with Team BRNZ. Despite Pyrrha's reassurances, Jaune can't help feeling the match would have gone smoother had there been a fourth team member taking care of BRNZ's sniper. They'd won, narrowly, and mostly because Nora had gotten herself so loaded up on electricity that Ren was currently lighting candles in their dorm room to dispel the lingering scent of ozone. Pyrrha strips out of her plate armor as they talk and Jaune takes the opportunity to analyze the new stains in their carpet. She apologizes as she excuses herself from the conversation and heads out for a quick shower, closing the door firmly behind her.

Before Ren can follow her out to shower himself, Jaune vaults over the beds, slaps Nora's headphones over her ears, and grabs Ren by the shoulders, shaking him hard.

"Ren, I need your help!"

A confused and slightly scared Ren nods slowly. "O...kay?"

"I need advice," Jaune says. "On...on girls."

Ren stares at him "...girls?"

"Yeah, I mean...you and Nora have been…" He glances over to make sure Nora's headphones are on securely. She seems to be enjoying whatever is playing on them. He turns back to Ren. "Okay, well, I don't know if there's a name for what you and Nora are, but whatever you're doing, you're doing it better than I can and… I just don't... girls..." Jaune trails off, running a hand through his hair.

"What about girls?" Ren asks cautiously.

Jaune sighs, plopping down to sit next to Ren. "How...how can you tell if a girl likes you?"

Ren sets a hand on Jaune's shoulder decisively. "Jaune, Weiss does not like you."

Flustered, Jaune stammers, "Not Weiss! Look, just— I— Nevermind. It was a stupid idea."

Ren shrugs. "Alright."

Jaune says nothing and neither does Ren. They sit in silence for a long while, listening to the dull music coming out of Nora's headphones. Finally, Jaune realizes that he's playing a losing game trying to outlast Ren of all people. He groans, mortified, and buries his face in his hands so he doesn't have to look at his teammate.

"How long do you think… I mean, Pyrrha's too polite to laugh but… Worst case scenario, if she's too embarrassed to ever speak to me again… I can always crawl in a hole and die, right?"

"What?"

In a garbled rush, Jaune blurts, "How badly can a person screw up asking their best friend out for coffee?"

Ren doesn't answer. Jaune whimpers into his hands.

"...that badly, huh."

Still, Ren says nothing.

Jaune lifts his head. "Ren?"

As calm as ever, Ren clears his throat and turns to his partner. "Nora? It's happened."

Nora removes one headphone and stares between Ren and Jaune.

" ...no," she whispers.

Ren nods.

Nora throws the headphones off and leaps off the bed towards the boys. She clutches Jaune by the face, turning his head this way and that to confirm. Grinning from ear to ear, she says, in awe, "They said this day would never come!"

"I don't know what you're— You're freaking me out a little," Jaune says, blushing furiously.

Smiling, Ren pats Jaune's knee. "Jaune, you should have no problem asking Pyrrha out for coffee."

"Huh? But— Why would—?"

The door opens, and Pyrrha walks back in wearing a bathrobe, her hair up in a towel.

Nora plants her hands on her hips and announces, "Shower time!"

Quick as a whip, she grabs her shower caddy, grabs Ren and his caddy, and the two of them are out the door faster than either Pyrrha or Jaune can get a word in.

"What was that about?" Pyrrha asks.

Jaune has no idea what just happened, so he can only shrug and mumble, "Your guess is as good as mine."

Pyrrha makes a turning gesture with her finger. "Could you...?"

Jaune rotates on the bed so that he's staring at the far wall. They did this all the time when they were living together their first semester. The struggles of living in a co-ed dorm.

He hears Pyrrha toweling off her hair behind him. "Are you feeling any better?"

"Oh, yeah. Much better," Jaune lies. There's a dent in the wall in front of him where someone (probably Nora) threw a heavy object. Jaune stares at the off-color gash with the intense hope of discovering it held the secret of the universe. "Hey, so, uh, do you have plans for tonight? My sisters wanted to go to a nice dinner and I thought… well, we need to celebrate today, right?" he finishes. Jaune kicks himself.

Pyrrha sighs behind him. "That sounds wonderful, Jaune, but I can't. There's this big sponsorship gala the first night of the tournament festival. I'm expected to be there."

"Wow. That sounds important."

"It's boring," Pyrrha admits dejectedly. "It's all company heads and marketing teams. Pumpkin Pete's always has a presence so I have to go promote the brand." She shuffles from foot to foot. "I'd rather be at dinner with you and your sisters, honestly."

Jaune chews his lip as he hears Pyrrha finish getting dressed. He swallows down the lump in his throat and leans his elbows on his knees to stare at the wall even more intently. "Do you...do you have to go alone? Are you allowed a plus one?"

"Jaune, you'd hate it," Pyrrha says, walking over to sit next to him on the bed. She's wearing a simple dress and her glasses. Her hair hangs in a damp, tangled mess over one shoulder. "It's all stuffy old shirts watching you parade around like a posable doll. I'll be fine. You should have dinner with your family. Go have fun."

"We can make your gala fun," he says encouragingly. "We can make fun of all the old shirts. Do they have a chocolate fountain? We'll steal it."

Pyrrha raises a brow at him, but Jaune can tell she's trying not to smile. "It's formal attire."

"My mother made me pack a dress shirt."

"It's black tie, Jaune."

"Amarilla brought an evening dress. I think it has a bust in my size."

Pyrrha laughs, and though Jaune's heart feels like it's been on a rollercoaster the entire day, somehow this makes him feel the most grounded. Pyrrha in glasses and socks, trying to save the world with kindness; him back in their old room smelling like lavender candles and electricity, wanting to become someone worthwhile. They're the same as they always were.

"What do you say?" he asks with a grin.

She tilts her head in his direction. "You don't have to do this for me, Jaune. I'm not asking you to come."

"I want to," he promises. Stomping out as many butterflies as he can, Jaune nudges her with his elbow. "I'd do it even if I didn't get a free meal out of it with my favorite person in the world."

Pyrrha smiles and nudges him back. She stands to retrieve her scroll. "I think Neptune wears a suit your size. Let me get you his number."

Author's Note: On AO3, this story is tagged "angst with a happy ending" so don't fret too much. Fret only a little. Maybe...maybe a little more. Fret a medium amount.