welp
Yang cracked the door open, peeking inside as, somewhere behind her, Jaune slammed the door to JNPR's dorm room. To her mild relief it seemed that Ruby was still in the library. Considering the blinding red color of Jaune's face as he had rather obviously bolted to his room after being caught staring at her own door, she could gather that something had gone on in her absence. Both Blake and Weiss had turned to look at the door the instant it had moved, so Yang shrugged and stepped inside.
For a moment, the non red members of RWBY looked at each other in silence. Then, after said moment passed, Yang quirked an eyebrow.
"So, which one of you was it?"
Weiss scowled and loosely gestured to Blake, who merely cocked an eyebrow of her own.
Yang snickered at Weiss' expression, shut the door behind her, and tugged off her top as she reached for her night shirt. Muffled by the fabric on her face, but knowing her partner would hear her just fine, she asked with as innocent a tone as she could muster, "So, how was he?"
Weiss almost seemed to gag at what she knew was Yang's extremely intentional phrasing, but also knew that if she tried to say anything about said phrasing Yang would merely respond with an innocent comment questioning why Weiss had assumed anything sexual of the sort and then use it to lead into a jab and a comment about being a prude and dealing with such things was far more aggravating after a long day so it was honestly better to ignore the entire thing.
"He was fine."
Weiss was infinitely grateful that at least one of her teammates was sane and mature enough to deal with such a...creature, as Yang. God knew her own teammate only seemed to egg on her fiery sister, even if she had no idea what the subtext was. Or, at least, pretended to.
...Huh.
There was a scary thought-
"So 'fine' was good enough to make you take off your wraps?"
Weiss blinked.
What.
Blake scowled.
"They were in the way."
What.
"Suuuuuure" Yang drawled, leaning against the wall, "And how was it after blondie was able to get his hands all over you?" She leered.
Blake's scowl didn't move, but nor did she immediately fire off the retort Weiss was hoping she would. Instead, she looked back down at her book, pretended to read a few lines, and murmured "Surprising."
Yang snickered, stepping on Blakes bed and hopping up to her own. However, she didn't fire off another teasing remark like Weiss expected. "He is, isn't he?" She responded with a shocking amount of apparent interest.
Weiss managed to contain her gag this time. She made no secret that she didn't like Jaune - she didn't hate him, of course. But he didn't seem to really do anything, except have Pyrrha save his butt and sometimes have some generally decent ideas, and while she wouldn't actually trade Ruby for Pyrrha (Not that she'd say it so bluntly, and the dunce wouldn't pick up on her subtlety anyways) She would, occasionally, in the middle of a sleepless night, scowl at the reminder that Pyrrha had actively sought out Jaune instead of partnering with her.
Oh well, as a fellow celebrity of sorts she was well aware of the toll it could take on one's psyche. If it made Pyrrha snap at a young age then there really was nothing she could do. How dreadful.
Unaware of the sarcastic musings of a spiteful heiress, Blake spoke up.
"His hands didn't wander. Not once - he never even veered to my sides until I told him too."
Blake sounded...pensive. In Blakes mind, it was due to not being entirely sure why she felt the sudden need to clarify this. Or why even continue the discussion at all, when she could be reading. But she was already a sentence in, so it was too late to back out now.
For Weiss, it was an understandable curiosity - her teammate had no reason to lie, unless the entire story was a fabrication and she did in fact-
No, she rathered not think like that. Besides, Blake wasn't the lying type, at least concerning something like this.
Yang spoke up, and Weiss found herself even more curious.
"Same here. Heck, I teased him when he was done and he bolted. Granted, I don't think that's super unusual, but-"
"No, I mean, it kinda is," Blake cut off, and Yang looked only slightly affronted at being interrupted. Blake paused, seeming to realize that she should clarify, and to the mild astonishment of Weiss, her face actually reddened slightly. "I mean, well, when he was done I...well, I turned around."
Weiss blinked, confused as to why this was relevant, before remembering Yang's little comment from earlier. Yang, too, seemed to realize the significance of this, and she nearly rolled off her bed to gape at her partner.
"Wait - you flashed him?" She guffawed, the bed shaking with her laughter.
Blake's scowl deepend alongside the redness on her cheeks as she buried her face in her book.
"That isn't the important part-" she tried to say, before Yang cut her off.
"Nonono, I think it's very important - you showed Jaune your boobs!" she crowed, and Blake threw her book at her partner.
"I didn't mean too!" She snapped, not with genuine anger but merely the flush of embarrassment. "I just...spaced, for a bit."
"You spaced?" Weiss asked, incredulous.
Blake nearly growled, snatching her book back before Yang could hold it above her, or hide it.
"I said. That's not the important part." She ground out, trying to regain her cool, and Yang finally seemed to calm down and no longer rock the bed and wow that was phrasing Weiss never wanted to think or imagine again.
"Well, what is, then?" Weiss said hurriedly, banishing the thoughts as Blake turned the scowl on her, grumbling about idiots not letting her finish her sentences, before finally speaking up.
"He flinched like he'd been slapped."
Her face pinched. But, if she were to be accurate, she needed to be thorough, and so she mumbled "After getting a look but I think he was just shocked and the moment I realized I turned-"
But Yang was already in hysterics again.
"That...doesn't strike me as too unusual?" Weiss commented, however.
At Blakes silence and Yang's continued laughter, Weiss sighed as she grumbled out a pseudo-compliment. "He may be unable to get a clue, or is too persistent for his own good, but he's never...tried anything weird, I guess?"
Yang paused, somehow managing to go from gut-shaking-and-only-gut-shaking laughter to sober in less time than it took Ruby to inhale her coffee. "I suppose it isn't the strangest thing, yeah, but we both gave him quite the opportunities, especially miss topless-"
Weiss stifled a laugh, pretending it was a yawn and convincing no one as Blake once more nailed her partner in the face with a book, although this time Yang caught it before she could snatch it back.
"Forget I said it" Blake hissed, snatching for her book.
"Never!" Yang cackled, holding it out of her reach. "Is he the first guy who's seen your-"
As Blake lept from her bed, clawing at Yang's face, Weiss laid back and tuned out the noise as best she'd learned to do. Amidst the jokes and jabs, there'd been at least some things worth thinking about, there. Tomorrow would tell more. For now, she had beauty sleep to get.
Jaune stumbled into his room, letting out a very tiny and very not-manly scream as he nearly collided with a pensive looking Pyrrha.
"U-Um, h-hi" He stammered, certain that his face was very red.
Her face changed from pondering to bemused as she saw him flounder in place, moving aside with a content "Hello, Jaune." and letting him almost stumble into the bathroom to splash very cold water against his face.
She sat down on her bed, watching the sliver of his form visible through the cracked door move, curious as to his absence earlier. They hadn't planned to study, or train, so he hadn't stood her up on anything, but they were usually quite forthcoming about each other's schedule.
That being said, by his scarlet face, she had a few ideas she deemed a safely accurate judgement of what had happened.
Her pensive look returned as she followed the thought trains from station to station. Twice now, he had massaged someone (if that is indeed what he did today). It might have been Yang again, in which case she had quite a flirtatious personality and seemed to enjoy teasing her own teammates. It didn't seem much a stretch for that personality to extend to Jaune, especially since they'd already had one massage to get initial awkwardness out of the way.
Well, for her to get the awkwardness out of the way. Jaune, she'd found (within maybe half a day of being his partner) was very awkward around the opposite sex. At least, when it came to their bodies. Many years of arena based combat experiences and celebrity events had endowed her with an acute sense of when she was being watched, and while her adorable teammate had never stared at her with the open lust as some rather unsavory folk she'd known, his eyes definitely strayed just like anyone else's might. The difference was, of course, that when he looked at her he'd often realize where he was looking, flush, and then look away before even noticing that she'd seen him.
It didn't seem motivated by shame of being caught, unlike most. He genuinely seemed disappointed with himself.
For a flirtatious, teasing personality like Yang to crack jokes, she had to wonder if they bothered him. If so-
"Uh, Pyrrha?"
She blinked, glancing up at her teammate whose face was still slightly pink, but now from a thorough towel scrubbing.
"Ah, sorry. I must have spaced out" She said demurely, smiling in response to his hesitant grin.
"That's alright. I, uh, I have an apology of my own, so we're even." He said, habitually scratching his chin as he looked away, mild embarrassment now the cause of his face's pink tint.
"Oh, that's alright!" She reassured, "If massaging people helps them-"
He coughed suddenly, wheezing as she blinked. It took a moment for him to collect himself, and shortly after he rasped "Y-You, um, you guessed, then?"
Her smile widened slightly, and her voice took on the mildest of teasing notes. "I did. There aren't many things that make you quite that red." She said, giggling as the mild pink deepend to a harder flush, and he turned his gaze away with another cough.
"I, um, I mean-"
She cut him off this time, her smile gentle, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm. "It's quite alright, leader, you don't need to apologize for helping our friends."
She enjoyed teasing him, yes, but to see his smile become that much brighter was a treat unparalleled. For a moment, the crimson fled from his cheeks and he could only beam, before abruptly coughing and flushing slightly again.
"T-thanks but, um, I wasn't gonna apologize for Massaging Blake."
Pyrrha blinked. Well. That was unexpected.
...Was it? That was leap of a judgement to make on someone with as reserved a personality as the Faunus in question. Silence in public might not necessarily be an accurate indication of how one acted in private - Pyrrha herself didn't imagine many people would expect her to tease her Leader as much as she did. Who knew what Blake enjoyed, or sought out if she heard about it? She certainly didn't. Not to the same extent that Blake's on team might, anyways-
Pyrrha blinked as Jaune poked her forehead, his face once more devoid of red.
"Y'alright there, Pyrrha?" He asked, only semi-jokingly, as she smiled and nodded.
"Sorry, I do seem to be spacing a lot today, huh?" She asked, giggling as Jaune grinned and pretended to admonish her.
"Come now, Ms Nikos!" He declared in a very over-the-top (but, to Pyrrha's amusement, not inaccurate) imitation of professor Port. "One distraction in combat could have disastrous consequences!" The image, complete with Jaune using a hand to mime a very, very wiggly mustache, was as funny as it was cute and she found herself doubled over with him as they tried to stifle giggles.
"A-anyways," He gasped, gut aching slightly, "I was, uh, gonna apologize for not telling you that I was massaging Blake. So, uh, I will. Sorry." He finished with a bashful grin.
"You're quite alright!" Pyrrha said, slightly breathless as they both calmed down. "I'd merely ask that you keep me updated on when you next plan on giving massages, unless you're done?" she finished on the question, before giggling as Jaune immediately went red. "I presume not, then." She said with a little trill, covering a smile as he rubbed the back of his head.
"I, um. Yeah, W-weiss, um, asked- well, 'asked' me to massage her." He mumbled, not quite looking at Pyrrha's face, more like just over her left ear.
Pyrrha's smile...didn't quite thin. She wasn't petty enough to be upset that Jaune was giving a backrub to someone he quite obviously had a crush on. She certainly wasn't petty enough to try and politely steer him away from that course of action.
...That didn't mean she didn't have the tiniest, tiniest fraction of pettiness in her.
But Jaune wouldn't see that. She may be young, but she was a battle-hardened warrior celebrity. If she couldn't acknowledge immature emotions, especially one's pointed at a fellow Huntress-in-training, and stifle them, than she had a lot of maturing to do.
"I see! Is that happening tomorrow?" She asked, her smile just as strong, just as bright, and he brightened as well. She didn't know if Jaune was conscious of the tension that sometimes rested between them, especially alone in their room when their other two teammates were out training together, but she certainly was. She rarely focused on it, but she felt it, and she imagined that Jaune felt, on some level, something similar. Perhaps not an awareness of why, or what, or even when, but an awareness nonetheless.
It mattered not. He was smiling, and she would take refuge in the smile he aimed at her.
"Yeah, probably tomorrow afternoon? Sorry about all this, Pyrrha." He said, a hand half-raising to his head before falling back to his side. She didn't know what to think of the fact that he was getting out of that frankly adorable habit.
"It's alright." She murmured quietly, resting a hand on his arm.
She grinned.
"Just as long as it's me next, okay?"
...Perhaps she enjoyed teasing him almost as much as she enjoyed making him happy. He was just so cute when he got all red and sputtery.
Sleep had come...well, it had come eventually, for Weiss. It was neither fitful nor particularly restful. She was certainly ready to face a normal school day and it's firmly-upheld concepts of what is right and proper for a Schnee Heiress such as herself.
She was ready for that kind of day.
What she wasn't ready for was a day carrying a somewhat disturbing trend.
It hadn't taken her long to notice, not long at all. It was a minor thing, easily explained, easily understood. Indeed, it was, but the fact that her mind would frequently wander back to the Blond she had an...engagement with, this evening, was starting to get aggravating.
There was an obvious conclusion she knew, as she automatically rattled off a perfect answer to the question on the board. Jaune and her had a...contentious relationship. At some point, his attempts to "woo" her had started to seem more like jokes than genuine effort, but that didn't change the fact that they still occurred. It didn't change the fact that she'd wanted to partner with Pyrrha rather badly, or change the fact that she found his attitude abrasive in many situations. And she had demanded he give her a massage.
She knew her teammates. On many levels, she knew that they would never...do that, in the room. It was a foregone conclusion, something so laughable to consider that she was almost, almost annoyed she'd considered it at all. But she had.
Or had she?
She ground her teeth, forcing her eyes to focus on her paper, answering the questions with aggressive scratches of her pencil.
She found herself stuck in a position of being unable to decide if she'd actually imagined that as a possibility, or only pursued the line of thought long enough to put herself in a position of demanding that Jaune prove his 'talents.'
It infuriated her. She didn't like him, not romantically, not sexually. She wasn't a middle school girl, giggling and denying that she had a crush. She'd been raised in an environment of social vultures. There'd been some cute boys at the parties she'd attended, and every now and then one would catch her eye longer than others. Hell, that had been the case with Neptune. He'd just so happened to fall into a category filled with no small amount of traits that appealed to her, and where had that gone?
Nowhere. Crushes didn't last, not in a ballroom with dozens of men and women desperate to exploit anyone they could for the tiniest of advantages. Not in a school to prepare her for combat against monsters that could kill her or enemy hunters that could do far worse.
She knew it wasn't a crush through more than her own self-surety as well. She could admit, to herself privately, sure, that Jaune wasn't unattractive. She could also admit that while he may have been weak at first, he'd grown. Nothing to sneeze at, but nothing to find particular amazing either. Right now he was only slightly under average in terms of combat ability - he wasn't worthless, but he certainly didn't appeal to her the way Neptune had.
So, why, heavens above why could she not stop thinking about what would happen that night? Her knuckles popped as she gripped her pencil tighter, banishing images of her facing away from him, baring her back-
No.
She would not.
In an instant, it was gone. She didn't expect the reprieve to last. She may be confident in her awareness of how she felt, but she knew that she was 17, and she knew that one lone thought didn't change a state of mind, but just as well as she knew those things did she know this thing.
Jaune would not be seeing her back, tonight.
It was sorta funny, how he noticed. He'd wrapped up the quiz (what questions he could manage to answer, at least) and let his eyes wander around the room. His gaze passed across Weiss, and for a moment he saw her grip her pencil until her knuckles were white.
His eyebrows pinched together, mimicking the motion with his own left hand for a moment, before glancing down as the action brought a shocking twinge of pain.
It took a healthy amount of self-restraint to not smack his forehead. Of course. He'd given two lengthy massages to two people on two sequential nights, in roundabout the same places on their body. Of course his hands would start to ache. It even made sense that he wouldn't notice until now, as he'd always had a pretty loose grip of pencils.
He frowned, focusing as he alternated between stretching his fingers out and clenching them in. He didn't know any legitimate ways to stretch his own hands, but even his shoddy control could still manage to let a trickle of aura into his hands. The relief was palpable, aches and tightness fading as he sighed, rubbing at his wrist. He'd keep this up until the end of class and see how he felt. If it continued, he'd probably check with Pyrrha or Ren about exercises he could do with his hands, especially since he didn't want them to be aching while he massaged Weiss' pale-
His teeth hit each other with a lip-muffled click. He scowled.
He scowled harder.
…
Handstrailingdownthecurvesofherlithebackbeforediggingin-
Had he not been in class, surrounded by people, easily embarrassed by public attention, and probably six or seven other reasons, he'd have screamed.
Indeed, just like the previous day, it proved to be a long class.
Thankfully, however, today had some practical training. Even more thankfully was that he could be paired up with his partner and not put up on stage with Cardin, again. That was nice.
What was less nice was that Weiss and Ruby were behind Pyrrha, and Weiss seemed rather a bit more magnetic than usual to his eyes.
Pyrrha noticed, of course. It'd be insulting to both of them to assume she wouldn't, and it took one glance for her to realize why. He'd considered asking if they could switch, but she didn't bring it up and Jaune figured that he might as well practice keeping his focus on a target.
It didn't go so well, but the effort made the aches worth it, right?
Hah.
How very wrong.
One short lapse, one quick scolding, multiple apologies from his wonderful, terrifyingly skilled partner to brush off as he had upper arm wrapped later, he sat at lunch, alone this time as Pyrrha checked in with Glynda concerning a project due in a week or two.
He glared at his plate.
He liked to imagine it glared back, but meat and potatoes could only form so many expressions.
So, with a sigh and a grimace as he forgot to use the uninjured hand, he started to eat-
"Will that be problematic?" Said a familiar, dry voice.
He managed to not choke, calmly washing down the bite with juice, before meeting the eyes of his kind-of-maybe-okay-still crush. She glanced down at his bandaged arm, arching a single eyebrow.
He managed to hold her gaze somewhat steadily this time, gently rotating his shoulder to feel out the changes in pain.
"I...don't think so." He finally said, comparing its current ache to its original ache. "I heal quick, especially when I've only got one practical and it's already done. Should be good as new when- um, later." He lamely finished. It was gratifying to see her also have a reaction to the implication, before she turned and left for her table, even if it was only a small twitch. At least he wasn't alone in his feelings of 'hey excuse me what the heck?'
Hah. Hahh.
Yeah right.
Without a Pyrrha and her patented "Optimistically praise the leader's strong points and bolster his weak ones with her own strengths!" technique on hand, his thoughts drifted towards negative space.
His crush, and though he liked to think she wasn't anymore she definitely still was, probably just wanted to confirm doubts of hers. The chances of her even considering another massage, no matter how good he might be, were so close to zero that it would be pointless to even estimate the distance between the two.
He sighed, glumly bringing more food to his mouth. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to find any enjoyment tonight, what with his nerves being through the roof at the thought of massaging Weiss Frigging Schnee, because he was sure he'd be thinking of how she'd want to interact with him even less when they were done. She'd probably be disappointed with him - how the hell could he compare to the kind of massages she must have had, growing up as a rich heiress?
The urge to bang his head on the table was resisted, this time. Instead, he finished what remains of his meal he could stomach, and went to class early. Hopefully Port's booming version of small talk could distract him from his intrusive, self-deprecating brain.
Hah. Hahh. Hahhhhh.
The day passed. Jaune only had two minor internal meltdowns, Weiss only nearly broke two pencils, Pyrrha only had to restrain a laugh four times as she watched both of them in class, and before any of them knew it, Jaune's arm was healed and it was almost six o'clock.
As he was returning to his room with a couple snacks, he passed Blake, Yang and Ruby. he waved amiably, glancing back as they passed each other, only to see Blake raise an eyebrow and Yang to leer, where Ruby couldn't see. He felt his face heat up about seven million degrees, but managed to contain the urge to scream, cry, and run away - all at the same time.
He waited in his room for the ten minutes remaining, knowing it was stupid and everyone was gone and he should just go and get the ordeal over with and figure out how to never look at his crush again.
But he didn't move. He sat, on his bed, alone in the room, and waited.
Pyrrha was in the library, working on Glynda's project, whereas Ren and Nora had apparently gotten permission to take a short vacation for reasons Jaune wasn't entirely aware of. Ren had indicated, in far shorter words than normal (and wasn't that a feat) that it was family related, but seeing as Ren had never mentioned anything about family, that meant Jaune had no idea where they'd gone or when they'd be back, aside from 'soon.'
His scroll unhelpfully beeped, telling him it was six. He swallowed. His first attempt to stand failed, as his legs didn't obey, and his second attempt had him standing but immobile. He groaned, wishing he could just hide in his bed, hide and forget about these stupid massages, because he didn't want to face her inevitable disappointment. He knew Weiss didn't like him, he wasn't stupid, but the status quo was better than what could only result from this.
...But that wasn't what Pyrrha's leader would do, was it?
Ren's leader wouldn't hide, and whimper.
Nora's leader wouldn't be immobilized by fear, and doubt.
JNPR's leader would feel them, yes, but he'd act anyways. He had to.
His legs moved, though he wasn't entirely sure it was him moving them, and his arm opened the door. A few paces later had him in front of the door, and his gut twisted and curdled and burned like he'd swallowed a lit coal.
His hand continued to move, independent of his will, rapping thrice on the heavy door.
For an instant, he imagined a world where she was gone, and it'd have been utter stupidity for him to ever imagine this as actually happening-
The door opened.
She had removed her blazer and kept the skirt on, but she didn't look particularly ready for a back massage. Before he could speak, she shoved a small plastic container under his nose. After fumbling fingers managed to pluck it from her grasp she sat down on a comfortable looking chair and gestured to Blake's bed.
"Um." He said, eloquently.
She rolled her eyes, impatiently gesturing again, and his legs obeyed her before his brain had finished processing the strangeness of all this, absentmindedly placing his scroll on the edge of Blake's bed.
"Open the jar and get ready." she said in a somewhat clipped tone, before lifting one bare leg and resting it next to him.
"You'll be massaging my feet."
What.
It had taken a moment, but after a short noise of displeasure she found he was following her instructions quite succinctly. She wrinkled her nose briefly as the scent of menthol started to permeate the room before turning her focus to Jaune. He'd worked the material on to his hands, but now floundered slightly. Before she could reprimand him (though part of her knew that she really ought to be a little more courteous, but it was easier to ignore that annoying voice), he set his expression, placed both hands on one foot, gently felt along the surface of her sole for a moment, and began to push.
She inhaled sharply, repressing a groan of satisfaction as his fingers immediately found and pressed into a prominent ache, the gel cooling her skin and easing the pain. It's effects, though, didn't hold a candle to what he was managing with his hands. By his mildly panicked expression before she'd gathered that he'd never given someone a footrub, but had he not made that face she'd have assumed he had a decent level of experience with-
She froze slightly, catching herself in the middle of a tight groan.
It was then, at this point, that she realized a small problem with her logic from earlier.
She might have succeeded in ensuring Jaune didn't see her back, but she'd never gotten a professional foot massage before. She kept herself out of view, but she had no experience in what a footrub would feel like from someone who knew what they were doing, and he clearly did.
...Well, it was too late to back out now, a satisfied sounding part of her mind thought as he shifted on the bed to get better leverage- no, he had just taken her other foot into his hands.
...Oh dear.
He'd been shocked, at first. Angry, for a moment, surprisingly enough. Her feet? Really? A tiny, nasty little voice had grumbled something in a poisonous tone about stuffy heiresses thinking they were better than others, but with a rush of determination he crushed that thought. He'd never used a rub before but it seemed pretty self explanatory.
...Now came the problem at hand.
Or, at foot. Hah.
He'd given footrubs to his sisters countless times, but these were Weiss' feet, and that was a whole different ballpack. They weren't any less scary than the idea of seeing and touching her back, considering how long her legs were-
He cut that train of thought off firmly, habit helping to shut down such thoughts about his sometimes-teammate.
Still, his convictions on how he looked at and thought of his friends didn't change just how disconcerting this challenge was.
...But Pyrrha's leader wouldn't back away from a challenge, even if that challenge was defeating his own desire to run away from a scary situation.
He brought his fingers to her sole, gentle as always at first. He had his work cut out for him, considering she seemed to spend half her life in heels.
Having run out of ways he could put it off, he squared his shoulders, positioned his thumb just so, and pushed.
Out of the corner of his eye, in some part of his perception not focused on manicured nails and smooth skin, he saw her back arch. For an instant he feared that it was more painful that helpful, and his doubts nearly slammed him over, but she relaxed after another instant, and so he warily continued. He barely had to even look for specific points to rub - her whole foot might as well be one big knot. Still, he tried not to focus all his attention on one single place, pushing a thumb up the arch of her foot and watching her toes flex in response. While staring at her feet felt a little bit weird, it helped him ignore the slowly-growing, disgusting urges to look higher.
He twisted, experimentally moving his fingers higher up-
"M-Mmm-"
The sound stopped as soon as it had started, barely an instant of noise. Nevertheless, his face burned. She'd sounded so, so-
He shivered, his hands shaking slightly as he switched feet, if only to force himself to focus on a new set of motions.
This, as it happened, was a bad idea.
She made the...noise, again. It was just as short, and she cut it off again, but his face still felt hot from hearing his crush sound like that.
He had a feeling that this massage would take a long time.
Weiss was both slightly embarrassed and extremely grateful that Jaune was staring so intently at her feet. After the second groan, not moan, she'd managed to control her voice a bit better, but she'd watched rather attentively, despite the wonderful pain of his massage, as his face had turned bright red.
She knew, had he looked up, he'd have seen a similar color on her own.
...She desperately hoped Yang hadn't walked by the room, then. That would be far too conveniently inconvenient, and the blonde would never let it go.
Thankfully, for Weiss, Yang had indeed not crossed by the dorm in that moment.
Less thankfully for Weiss, Jaune's hands began to cramp. With barely a thought spared for the aches, he flooded his hands with aura to erase them and continued to work.
This, as it turned out, was a wonderfully horrible idea as far as both of them were concerned.
Jaune, for one, regretted touching his aura the second he'd pushed it through his palms, restraining a flinch as she made another one of those noises. A moan, and it was definitely a moan as far as he was concerned, slipped from her lips as she arched her back again, pushing her feet against his hands.
Meanwhile, Weiss fought the urge to slap a hand over her mouth, refusing to resort to such measures when she was perfectly capable of controlling her-
"M-Mnnn…"
...perhaps the hand wasn't that bad of an idea.
It wasn't long before Jaune felt as though steam ought to be rushing out of his ears.
This was…
Well, her moans weren't quite Yang's potentially-and-probably exaggerated levels, yet, but this still seemed far worse.
Yang was attractive, and while he'd never get the words out when speaking he could think it relatively fine (and it definitely was easier to think about that because he'd take anything over thinking about Weiss's moans of pleasure) but Weiss was...well, moaning.
His crush. Was Moaning.
Because of him.
He wasn't even entirely sure why, since she'd been doing basically fine earlier, but she was and holy god was it distracting and, ah, interesting.
Weiss herself wasn't entirely sure what had changed, but she was undecided on whether or not it was a good or bad thing.
On one hand, which was definitely not pressed against her mouth and if it were would still barely manage to muffle a few...sounds, she was making some noises that Yang would laugh to death upon hearing.
On the other hand, firmly gripping her skirt, this was…
Well.
Making her make sounds.
Whatever he'd done differently, it seemed to actually be healing her muscles. Her feet were doing more than just relaxing, they felt better. She'd grown quite skilled at running, jumping, and generally maneuvering in heels, but they still left her feet aching after long training sessions, and those familiar aches were vanishing under his fingers. It wasn't an overtly pleasurable feeling, but it felt good nonetheless.
Unfortunately, the aches were fading, and the wonderful feeling she had to assume was related to said ache-fading was also beginning to rescind.
In a flash of sudden, selfish desire, she spoke up abruptly.
"H-Higher."
Jaune froze, feeling as though someone had injected metal into his veins.
"U-Um." He said, voice probably an octave higher than normal.
For the first time, he risked a glance up and froze solid.
She was gorgeous.
Her cheeks were tinted pink, gentle enough to not contrast with her pale skin, a single hand resting a few fingers on her chin and one on her lips, her eyes pointed firmly at the wall and definitely not at him. Her hair was slightly ruffled, her shirt wrinkled, her lips parted-
"Higher. M-massage, higher. My calves." She finished shortly, slightly breathless.
She'd have never said that, in her right mind. She knew that. For a moment, her mind hung on that thought, but she couldn't find the significance. At the same time, a burning curiosity had taken root in her gut.
As his hands slowly but surely began to drift up, crossing her ankles, towards her calves, the gel rub forgotten on the bed, she felt that curiosity be satisfied. It wasn't just her feet, the muscles in her calves, strained and knotted but not healed by her own aura, unwound and relaxed at his touch. It felt wonderful, days of accumulated stress that wasn't damage to warrant healing but certainly hurt nonetheless being washed away by his fingers. She watched, watched his red face as he stared determinedly at her knees. While she hadn't been entirely...focused through the entire massage, and even less so now, she was reasonably confident that not once had he looked up, except when she had told him to move away from her feet.
She was sitting in front of him, legs extended, and not once had he followed their length.
...That wasn't entirely impressive, all things considered. Basic human decency wasn't to be lauded as if it were special.
Yet, it was more than that, wasn't it? Not only had he never looked, he hadn't even tried. Hadn't moved and caught himself, not tried to flick his eyes up, suddenly started as he realized his gaze was drifting. Here he was, a young adult who'd probably never had a girlfriend, massaging the feet of someone he had a rather obvious crush on, and he'd never once even had to stop himself from trying.
Basic human decency need not be lauded...but could it be questioned?
That question, which may have crossed her mind on any day but certainly never be vocalized, slipped from lips loosened by a firm, shockingly relaxing massage and a curiosity that had been sparked by the conversation from last night (and inflamed by a day of waiting).
"Why...Why don't you look?"
He froze, face scarlet, staring hard at her knees. He considered her words, remembered that while he had thought of Blake's back all night, he tried not to think about her front. How it felt wrong, made him feel gross. He considered his conviction to not look at her that way, to not follow the track of her legs. He considered what that meant, considered the attraction he felt to the beauty before him, considered what felt like a thousand things that could never be explained in one response, and answered her question as best he could.
"Because, I, I have no right to look."
She didn't flinch, or drop her jaw or stare in astonishment. That was, of course, not to say she wasn't surprised. To hear such a vehement, yet honest answer from the usually meek and, paradoxically, flirtatious boy, even if said flirtations were mostly in jest, on such a subject was...Well, it was unexpected. On top of that, the answer itself was...odd.
"No, no right?" She couldn't help but ask, biting back a groan as his fingers began to push again, slowly rubbing circles into her calves without much thought.
His brain was struggling to cooperate, to put something into words that he himself didn't fully understand, and much like the recipient of his massage (not, of course, that he'd know,) his tongue had been loosened far beyond its norm.
"I, don't get me wrong, W-Weiss. I, I want to look." He laughed bitterly, admitting something like that to her after they'd seemed like they were on better terms was hard, but he would not-could not be dishonest to her now. "But...I can't. It would feel like I'm, like i'm using you, l-looking at you like that. I, I have no right because you haven't given me permission. To look, to even want to look, it-it's wrong."
Now, while still not speechless, this definitely shocked her. That the boy who had done nothing but badly flirt with her when they'd first met would have such a perspective, compared to the boys who already whistled when she walked by, covered in sweat from training while heading to the showers, or who asked her out relentlessly...As with most things that concerned the blond before her, she was becoming to realize, it wasn't what she'd expect. Not only was he actively choosing not to because it was disrespectful to her, but he was willing to admit, to her face, that he wanted to look and, judging by his tone, those thoughts sickened him.
A little voice in the back of her head that did nothing but add fuel to her insecurities suddenly seemed small. She had to probe deeper, just a bit farther, she had to know.
"...You want to look?"
Naturally, he misinterpreted that.
He laughed bitterly once more, hands slowing again as he grimaced. "It's disgusting, isn't it? But I, I won't lie to you. Not now. Even if it means you hate me, even if-"
She cut his rambling off by pressing a hand firmly against his mouth, lifting his head to look him in the eye, realizing at the same time that there was someone there she hadn't noticed.
"I don't hate you." She said firmly, that same voice yowling that she was being too honest firmly silenced. "I, I definitely didn't like you, at first, but I...I don't hate you."
She pulled away, suddenly realizing how closely she'd leaned in to do that. He was still scarlet, but was now staring open-mouthed at her, frozen in place and barely breathing.
"Y-you don't?" He asked in a tiny voice, plain to see that he had felt very conflicted on this subject as of late.
She grimaced internally, but knew that to retreat now, in any direction, would be an affront to her pride. "No, I don't. It's, well," she paused again, actually grimacing this time, looking away but speaking before he could misinterpret what she meant. "It's...admirable, the courage it took to, to admit that."
It would have been so easy to shout, to get angry, to label him as some perverted idiot like plenty of men at Beacon, but she couldn't fall into that pit trap. Of course he wanted to look, it was without vanity that she acknowledged her own beauty, but to admit that and to feel guilty over it? She knew of grown men who did not have either that honesty, that courage, or that respect for her or other women.
He looked away again, face slowly lightening in color, and she only noticed that he was breathing easier now because of how different it made him look. He sat a bit higher, shoulders dropped from a position of tension, and that only made her realize even more just how much this had been bothering him.
"T-thank you." He whispered, looking so relieved that she couldn't help but feel a little bad for him. "I was so, so sure that you would hate me if you knew, I just felt so awful every time I thought about it…"
She sighed slightly, leaning back into her chair, absentmindedly noting that his hands had started moving again. "I'm really not someone to talk to about this, but those kind of thoughts, well…" she worked her teeth, growing more and more uncomfortable with this kind of topic, "I mean-"
"It's, it's alright." he cut her off, and she turned to glare at him she was met only with a gentle, shaky smile. "We, we don't have to talk about this. Not now, m-maybe not ever. I, I had a talk like this with, um, Pyrrha, so I already got the, ah, 'all this is normal to feel' talk. Not this context, but..." he tapered off as Weiss let out a sound that vaguely sounded like a giggle.
The half-snicker-half-giggle had crept up on her out of nowhere at his Pyrrha impression, causing him to flush slightly and turn away, smiling as well. Neither of them spoke after that, lapsing into a silence that was surprisingly comfortable, his hands gently and almost automatically seeking out tension in her calves and feet to press out. There wasn't an oppressive need to speak, to fill the silence after the conversation they'd just had, with how honest they'd just been.
Still, he found himself struck with the realization that all of this was actually happening. He wasn't dreaming, this wasn't some fantasy, he was actually massaging the feet and legs of his crush and she wasn't turning him away. He couldn't tell if it was making him emotional or merely even more nervous, the butterflies in his stomach and throat could be both.
However, he also knew that the massage had to come to an end. Even if he could make an excuse of just giving her a long footrub, despite having long worked out the kinks and tension in her feet and calves, he had homework to do and the rest of team RWBY wouldn't keep away for much longer. He'd have to leave then regardless of pretenses of massages, and while he very much so wanted to stay around and keep massaging her, even if it was her feet, because it was Weiss and he never thought he'd be this close to her without her trying to hurt him, after what they'd just said to each other it would sorely defeat the point.
That didn't mean he was subtle about it, not for lack of effort however. With visible reluctance, not that he knew, he finally felt his hands slow to a stop, fingers lingering on the smooth skin of her legs, grazing down them in a gesture that would have been suggestive and deserving of a smack if not for his prior honesty and the mood of the room. With his gaze tracking the lengths of her leg beneath his fingers, he missed the very slight dusting of pink that crossed Weiss' pale face at his gentle touch.
He leaned back, absentmindedly rubbing his hands, feeling the warmth of his aura finally start to drain, the weariness and soreness returning (Which didn't entirely make sense but he wasn't about to focus on anything else but his crush right now).
The silence continued, now becoming slightly awkward as Jaune was no longer doing anything that justified him remaining in the room, growing stronger as Weiss put her feet back on the ground, letting out a contented groan as she stretched her legs out, quickly shifting one of them so as to not kick Jaune in the face. Reflexively, he leaned to the side, but did not have the foresight to lean in the correct direction. Thusly, his lean and forward gaze took him straight between Weiss's legs-
There was no moment of pause and gaping astonishment, like with Blake. The instant he realized what exactly he was looking at, he bent backwards so fast he could have sworn he heard his back crack, and smacked his head against the bed frame behind him.
Apparently, according to the throbbing pain in his skull, he'd used a lot more aura than he'd thought during the massage.
Weiss hadn't missed this, but the reflexive rebuke was caught before it could escape as she pondered recent events, and declarations, by the now wincing and scarlet-faced Blond before her. She...didn't quite laugh, or giggle, merely exhaling through her nose, before pulling her knees together and looking at Jaune, who's gaze had been attracted by the movement.
For a moment they merely stared at each other in silence. Then, she sighed internally, and knew the correct course of action here.
Her lips curled up slightly as she said, quiet and gentle, "Thanks, Jaune."
His blush only seemed to deepen as his crush whispered a meaningful thank you to him, and his face lit up like he'd been handed the world. Or like she'd kissed him on the cheek.
She blinked, slightly perturbed at the sudden, inexplicably romantic thought, kicking it to dust. No way in hell would she do that for anyone after one leg massage, now matter how good they were.
...or what noises they managed to make her make, she internally acquiesced. Granted that she'd felt her aching muscles relax, and feel as though they were neither torn nor stressed to begin with, was more than she could say about any other masseur or masseuse she'd interacted with-
...What the hell was going on?
He reached up, nervously rubbing his aching head. "I, um, It's-" he cut off, coughing, before looking up at her, suddenly resolute. He seemed to square his shoulders, obviously holding firm his courage, and for a brief instant she worried he'd try and do something cheesy and romantic again, that fear washing away her previous confusion.
"It makes me happy to help you feel better, Weiss. I-I mean that."
She only hummed, relieved, motioning for him to stand up as she walked over to the door.
"I'll keep that in mind, next time I come back here after a long training session." She said simply, conversationally, not at all missing the way that Jaune looked simultaneously stunned beyond belief and as if someone had handed him her own inheritance.
Then, she put on here best good-natured scowl, knowing that Jaune probably saw right through it, and flicked her head, smacking his face with her ponytail as she opened the door.
"Get back to your room, I've got homework to do." She ordered simply, and with no small blush and a smile that could light up a room, he nodded and obeyed.
She shut the door behind him, absentmindedly ordering a few haphazard things in the room, putting the chair back in a closet, and changing into her nightgown. As she slipped under her covers, far more relaxed than she expected to be, she pondered the events of today from a perspective of new words and new, admitted truths.
'I want to look, but I can't.'
'It would feel like i'm using you'
The skeptic in her pondered whether this was an attempt in a rather long con, which would still explain his apparent reluctance.
But would he have nearly cracked his own head open, to continue 'refusing to look' at her? While she hadn't intended to accidentally put him squarely between her legs, she hadn't missed the strangled look on his face in the instant he realized what he was seeing.
'Even if you hate me.'
The possibilities lending themselves to him being able to delude himself, or a sufficiently skilled actor, were so outlandish that, while not forgotten, she didn't consider them especially likely.
She breathed deeply, relaxing under the weight of her heavy, expensive blankets, and began to fall into an easy doze as phantom fingers flickered along her feet and calves. In her dreams, these faceless, ownerless fingers strayed higher, but her sleeping mind didn't bear enough coherency to reject this idea. And if it helped her sleep?
It's not like she would tell anyone.
Of course, had she been fully awake, the fact that her thoughts had strayed so much on the Blond would have perturbed her, or how her thoughts had started to get slippery in the latter half of the massage. But she wasn't, so they didn't, and she dreamed on of a relaxing massage.
Half an hour later, the rest of her team filtered in. Yang pouted, opportunities to tease Weiss lost to the fact that even she wasn't mean enough to interrupt her teammates sleep for something like that. Blake had nothing to say, and Ruby seemed confused why her partner had gone to sleep so early.
Then, as Blake prepared for bed, she crouched, glanced under her bed with a quizzical eyebrow raised, before nodding and pulling her book out from under it. No one noticed the scroll she snagged off the ground, a selfie of Jaune and Pyrrha on it's lock screen, and a few minutes after that she slipped out wordlessly. This was not uncommon, so neither Yang nor Ruby questioned it beyond tilted heads and pursed lips.
She crossed the hallway, lightly knocking on JNPR's door. Hesitant footsteps followed after a moment of quiet shuffling on fabric, and the door cracked open to reveal blue eyes and blonde hair.
"Uh, hi Blake!" Jaune said with his usual exuberance.
He looked...good. Not in an attractive way, but in how his body language suggested he felt. He was standing tall (a far cry better than his slightly hunched posture from earlier, in the hallway), though his hands trembled slightly against the door. Having just come out of a massage though, that made sense.
She eyed him for another few moments, before wordlessly holding up his scroll.
"Oh!" He exclaimed, eyes lighting up as he reached out to take it.
In a flicker of spontaneity, Blake twitched it out of his grasp.
He stared, baffled, hand still stretched, her name on his tongue.
"...How was it?" She asked, finally figuring out what she was curious about.
He flushed scarlet, but looked strangely pleased at the same time.
...Huh. Weiss would have some questions tomorrow morning, it seemed.
"I see." She said dryly, placing the scroll in his hand, biting back a chuckle as he spluttered in confusion. With a casual wave, she bid him goodnight and returned to the room, silently slipping under her covers and opening her book to a familiar page.
...What an odd exchange.
Jaune remained standing for a few moments, highly confused. After another few moments, however, he figured it'd be best not to question it right now. Absentmindedly tossing his scroll on to a charging pad, he dropped down into his bed and fell into the easiest sleep he'd had in two days.
Half an hour later, Pyrrha returned to a dark room, eyed the opposing room's door with a pensive stare, before gently shifting an errant lock of blond hair out of her leaders face and settling down into her own bed for the night.
Later still, amidst dreams of alabaster skin and platinum hair, palms and fingers ached.
Uhhh
Surprise?
It's been a long time coming. Not so long ago i'd have apologized for the wait and promised to do better, but i'll save those words for now.
I'm not cancelling or dropping the story, or opening it to adoption.
That being said, I am taking a hard look at myself, and what I expect in the future. That being, I don't expect a fundamental shift in my personality and to suddenly gain the motivation necessary to pump out chapters every two weeks.
Is it possible? Yes, of course.
Is it probable? Yes as well, but a slightly smaller yes.
I'm neither busy nor undergoing emotional crises left and right. I'm returning to college in a week and a half, but I have yet to be so swamped with work that I literally had no time to write. I merely lacked the motivation to do so.
I don't know if that'll change, or how it would in the first place. All I know is that I don't intend to drop the story, and I have planned it out to a lengthy degree.
I've never really said this in any public forum, but I feel it's deserved.
I hate the original version of Massages. I hate the terrible writing, the terrible direction, the only thing I don't hate is that the original Massages is how I met that stories co-writer, Exvnir.
I've changed a lot in the five years-ish, give or a take a few months, since I wrote that story. I resolved to never delete it, but to use it as a showing of how I've grown since then. But that doesn't mean I want to keep everything from that era.
My current penname is a relic from a time when I was significantly less mature and obsessed with scythes, so I twisted "The Reaper" into "Hte Rarpee". It's dumb, lame, and lots of negative adjectives, but it's also a reminder of who I was, back then.
At the same time, I'm not who I was. I dropped the original Massages because I couldn't stomach it anymore, but I decided to rewrite it because I wanted to do better.
So, I'm going to drop my old name, but use something just as lame and dumb to signify that while I may have improved as a writer, i'm still a huge damn idiot who likes cheap, uninventive wordplay.
Unfortunately the url is already taken on Tumblr, so i'll just add "-writes" to the end of it.
Cheers y'all,
-Stromael
(Yes I used it for some dumb bullshit in the previous chapter no i don't care stop looking at me.)
PS. I have made both a tumblr account and an AO3 account, where I'll be posting chapters of this story and my other fanfictions, which might someday not be all RWBY. What a momentous occasion that will be.
Feel free to send me asks on Tumblr at Stromael-writes.
And as always, thanks to my lovely beta, Akardos. She's a sweetiepie who deserves the world.
EDIT:
Thank you to the folks who left reviews! Two of them stood out, and I wanted to preemptively clarify elements relating to their subject matter, before I forget to. I'd normally put this in the next chapter but I don't want to wait on these.
From FF8cerberus
"Decent chapter. Surprised how cynical Weiss is. She really believes everyone has another motive from what they actually present. Only 17 and she's thinking like this. Sad to see. At least, Jaune has made some progress towards her, intentional or not."
My beta pointed this out, but I forgot to add clarifying elements, though I did touch on the reason for this cynicism. Weiss was raised in High Politics, as the narration addressed in the early third of the chapter. She doesn't necessarily doubt everyone's motives and the truthfulness of their words, but she was exposed to and educated on how manipulative people can be to achieve goals. She had to be made aware of this, so she could best represent a presumably extraordinarily high value company at public and private events. I feel this upbringing justifies an ingrained habit of doubting people, especially when their actions and words point to a goal of getting close to her. While that may not be extremely accurate to her canon interactions, this story is already au anyways.
Next, from a guest:
"My one complaint is that Jaune seems to be extreme with regard to "respecting dah wamen". I don't want to bring politics in this, but it will be the easiest way to explain: Jaune's mentality seems to be extremely far left, and seems to equate glancing at a woman's "fun bits" it tantamount to rape.
That being said if you are attempting to characterized Jaune similarly to that description, then I must say that you are adeptly showing the inner turmoil that one such individual would likely feel often."
I also don't want to bring politics into it, so I wont. Jaune grew up with seven sisters. Given that I'm already leaning on a couple shounen tropes (but don't worry, I intend to play with them and keep things interesting) it only made sense to me that he would have an ingrained sense of boundaries. He doesn't view looking at a woman sexually as tantamount to rape, but it still a violation - it's the difference between someone being on a public beach in a bikini and someone being accidentally seen in underwear. In one case, assuming there was no pressure involved, that person is choosing to be seen in public wearing that amount of clothing.
For Jaune, it's all about permission. Neither Weiss nor Blake gave him permission to look at them that way. With Blake and Weiss both it was an accident, but in this story Jaune, again having been raised with eight female influences, and his aforementioned shounen tropes, values the necessity of permission very highly. All of this is further compounded by him considering both Blake and Weiss (and Pyrrha, as was evident in her memories of his glances and subsequent reaction) to be his friends, and therefore it is even more wrong for him to do so.
I do not consider it an extreme mindset, but it definitely is different than normal. This is entirely intentional, and I am well aware of how it might read a bit strangely. This will become relevant and noticed in the future of the story - it's not pointless, don't worry.
I apologize for the lengthy commentary and edits, but I felt it was very important to clarify these two points earlier rather than later. If you've stuck around this long, leave a review and tell me what you think! Feel free to put requests in reviews or in my tumblr askbox for things you'd like to see in future chapters!