So apparently I wasn't entirely clear on how this story works, so let me rectify that; The only way to pick which girl Jaune dates next is to vote on the poll. The poll will be active from the time the newest chapter is posted and will remain up for exactly seven days, at which point it will be taken down. Only votes on the poll will count towards choosing the next girl: suggestions in reviews or PMs don't count and will be ignored.
Hopefully that makes things clearer now. Anyway, pardon the intrusive A/N, I'll get back to the story now.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Chapter 3: A Little Honey.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" Jaune mentioned to his fairy companion as she dragged him through Beacon's hallways, on the hunt for his next "date". Well, her more than him, considering he was more worried about whether the rest of his life would be lived in Mono than finding another girl to date.
That, and he was still a little mad at her for not letting him spend more with Pyrrha...but mostly the ear thing.
"Oh it's not that bad, you big baby; I can think of a much worse place to be grabbing you right now…!~"
Jaune decided to not think about what she meant by that, for the sake of his sanity.
"And anyway," she continued, "soon you'll be swimming in so much tail before long you won't even care that you only have one functioning ear!"
Jaune found no comfort in that statement.
"Now let's see…," the fairy mused, finally coming to a stop, "not her, not her, not her- definitely not her! I mean, who deliberately wears purple and green together?"
As [not] fascinating as Kyu's selection process was, Jaune kind of had more important, immediate concerns to worry about.
"Can I have my ear back?" he pleaded, "I promise I won't run off." Kyu sighed but relented, releasing her surprisingly strong grip on the young Huntsman. "Thanks."
"You know, if you'd just followed my suggestion I wouldn't have had to drag you out here in the first place, would I?" she pointed out.
Jaune declined to comment. He didn't want to piss off his Love Fairy (that was never not going to sound ridiculous…), but he was beginning to have some doubts about validity of her latest "advice"; dating multiple girls at once wasn't his idea of "fun", especially with the enormous potential for body harm, to his person, if any of them somehow thought he was cheating on them.
Kyu must have noticed his uncertainty, because she stopped scanning the crowds of passing students and focused on him, her expression softening.
"Look, there's nothing to worry about," she explained to him, "all you're doing is hanging out with a few different girl to see which of them strikes your fancy. If you hit it off with any of them, great! If not, then they probably weren't right for you in the first place.
"It's all part of the process, and it isn't just a 'one and done' thing either; I did say this would take some time, didn't I?" she reminded him.
She didn't say that, but…it actually made Jaune feel a little better about the whole thing. Not by much, but it still helped ease his worries.
"So all these girls won't beat me to a pulp if they find out what I'm doing?" he asked.
She nodded. "That's usually the case, though there's always the chance one of 'em could turn out to be a bug nuts crazy Yandere or something like that."
Jaune didn't know what a "Yandere" was, but it sounded terrifying, and he gulped at the thought that there was still the possibility of him living the rest of his life in a body cast, or worse!
He felt a little silly for worrying about chronic tinnitus when that was possible!
"But there's only, like, a 1-in-13 chance of that actually happening," she waved dismissively, "so I'm sure you'll be fine!" She then went back to scanning the crowd, pulling out her weird looking Scroll, "OK, now which of these Honeys should you mack on next? Maybe I should see what the poll says..."
And just like that he was back to doubting his Love Fairy's (...yep, still weird) incredibly vague and highly questionable motives.
"OK," she hummed, raising an eyebrow, "I can work with that!" She put her Scroll away and turned to Jaune. "You wouldn't happen to know a 'Ruby', would you?" she asked.
"Uh, yeah," he said, "I met her on my first day here. Why?"
Kyu perked up, a wide grin spreading across her face.
"Because she's close, and she's single!" Then the fairy grabbed Jaune again and headed off with a purpose in her flutter. "Let's go!"
"Ohw ohw ohw ohw ohw ohw ohw ohw!" he nasally cried out as Kyu now lead him around by the nose.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Like Kyu said, Ruby was relatively close by, snacking on a bag of cookies by a pair of vending machines.
"OK, so according to my research," the fairy said, "she should be incredibly receptive to you hanging out with her, so just head on over there and make contact so you can eventually 'make contact', if you know what I mean!"
"...Hey, Kyu? I have a question."
"Fire away, Brohiem!"
"Um...why are we hiding?"
The pair of them were hiding just around the corner from Ruby, though more specifically, Jaune was hiding; since no one could see her anyway, Kyu was just standing carelessly in the middle of the hall as the occasional student passed by and gave him a weird glance.
Kyu turn to the scraggly teen. "ProTip, Playa," she explained, "girls tend to frown on the whole 'somebody's watching me' thing; it's creepy, and potentially grounds for the governing Love Fairy to enact a Code: Purple."
"Code: Purple": yet another vaguarity about the Love Fairy profession that now plagued Jaune's mind.
"So that's why you're hiding, because standing out on the open and staring at her is a big no-no. Besides, chicks really dig the whole Destiny thing, so it's better if your first meeting seems like a coincidence or an accident or the like. Anyway, get over there and offer to buy her a snack!"
Jaune nodded, and was about to do just that when he realized something. "Wait, didn't she just eat something?"
"Just ask her!" Kyu barked, tossing him into the hallway. She waggled her eyebrows, "Trust me, it'll totally pay off!"
Jaune wasn't sure he liked what she was implying, and the waggling eyebrows didn't help matters either. Still, he really had nothing to lose at this point, so he screwed up his courage and headed over to the vending machines, hopefully looking more calm and confident than he felt.
OK, this'll be a piece of cake, right? Ruby and I already know each other, so it won't seem too odd if I offer to buy her something, right? Right! And besides, we're both team leaders, so it'd be a good idea to get on better terms with her and her team in the long-
"Oh hi, Jaune!"
Jaune skidded to a stop, nearly repeating his earlier encounter with his fellow team leader. He stared down at Ruby, who in turn stared up at him, coolly munching on a cookie.
"Uh, hi Ruby! ...Um, fancy meeting you here?" he said, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head.
She shrugged, "I guess; I had a free period and I was feeling hungry, so I figured this was as good as possible on short notice." She swallowed her cookie and popped another one into her mouth. "Hey, did you hear that Pyrrha's giving a combat demonstration in Ms. Goodwitch's class?" she asked.
"Yeah, I may have heard that...," he said, flinching at the reminder at he could have been hanging out with his teammate right now. But there was no sense dwelling on what might have been, especially since Kyu would apparently just drag him wherever she pleased anyway. "So!...uh, you want to hang out for a bit?"
"*gulp!* Sure!" she chirped, "My next class isn't for a while, so I've got some free time." She tossed her empty cookie bag in a nearby trashcan. "Now come on," she said, "I know exactly what we can do!" Then she grabbed Jaune's arm and dragged him along, pulling him behind her.
At least she's not as rough as Kyu, he mentally sighed, relieved he wouldn't have to worry about losing his arms; he was kind of attached to those. I wonder what she has in mind?
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
"I'm so sooooo sorry!" she apologized, "I just sorta get carried away sometimes. ...you gonna be OK? Should we take you to the infirmary?"
Jaune moaned, wishing he were back in bed. He'd thought that Ruby would want to do something simple, like hang around the City or go to the Vytal Festival, not drag him to the practice arena and utterly beat him into submission! Granted, she didn't seem like she was into "normal girl" things, but that didn't make it any less emasculating that she'd pretty much unequivocally wiped the floor with his butt. (Not to mention the rest of him.)
"Yeah, don't worry about me," he said, trying to will back his tears of shame, "my body absorbed most of the damage, no bigee…."
"OK, that's good!" Ruby chirped, suddenly back to usual cheerful demeanor.
I wish she phrased that differently…, Jaune moaned at the unfortunate and accidental implications of the crimsonette's statement.
"So do you wanna make it best 2 out of 3?" she asked, turning her head upside down so as to properly converse with her sparring partner.
"No thanks." He let himself slide into his back before sitting upright. "Why don't we take a break?"
"Alright." She plopped down next to him, "So...what now?"
He shrugged, "I don't know. Talk?"
"OK...what should we talk about?"
Damn it! he cursed, I thought she was going to take the lead here!
He didn't know if he could handle taking the lead in a conversation like this, despite talking so easily with Pyrrha 15 minutes ago; as much as he contributed, she'd been the one to keep things going whenever things started to get awkward, asking him questions of her own and prompting him to elaborated on his answers.
He tried to think of a good icebreaker, but it turned out to be a more daunting task than he'd anticipated. Not that he wasn't able to come up with things to say, but they were either groan worthy pickup lines like "Hey girl, nice cape. Wanna make out?", or things like "So do you believe in fairies?" that even he thought were stupid.
He wished Kyu had at least told him a little about Ruby so he would have a better idea what topics would interest her.
He glanced over at his fellow team leader, who'd since taken her weapon out (It hadn't been that long, had it?) and was tinkering with it, adjusting blots with a little wrench.
Then he recalled the conversation they had on their first day at the school.
"Aren't you the guy who threw up on the ship?"
"N- ...yeah."
I hope her sister isn't still mad about that…, he thought before mentally scanning his memory forward to the important part.
"I'm kind of a dork when it comes to weapons," she explained, cradling her weapon in its gun form, "I guess I did go a little overboard when designing it…."
"So...why'd you choose a scythe?" Jaune ventured. Given that it was the only detail about her he could immediately recall about the hooded Huntress in training, he felt it was a safe topic to broach. "Isn't it kinda hard to wield?"
"It was at first," she explained, keeping her eyes focus on the task at hand, "I was always falling over 'cause I wasn't used to the balance, or 'cause I put too much follow through on a swing, or I'd accidentally drop it and it would transform on me...but then Qrow- that's my uncle, -gave me a bunch of pointers and I got a lot better." Then she tucked the wrench back into her cloak and took out a little screwdriver in its place. "I guess that's one of the reasons why Professor Ozpin asked me to come here," she shrugged.
Jaune blinked in shock at the revelation. He knew Ruby was a great fighter, his aching everything was proof enough of that, but to be asked by the headmaster of the school himself to attend? That was the kind of thing that only happened to prodigies, or people from well known families!
The irony of his own admission to Beacon (and the method in which said admission was acquired) was not lost on him.
"So how about you?" she asked back, looking up from her work with curious, silver eyes, "Who taught you how to fight?"
"Ghk!" he said, slightly thrown by the question. "Um, well…-"
"I bet it was some old Huntsman that lived out in the farthest corner of Mistral, or maybe you were taught by your parents who passed the ancient family secrets onto you one they thought you are ready, or something like that!" she rattled off before catching herself, "Eh heh, or, you know, you could have just went to a combat school…." She poked her fingers together sheepishly.
If Jaune didn't know any better, he could have sworn and been talking to his teammate Nora behind his back….
Regardless, she was still waiting for him to answer the question, but he couldn't really do that without revealing things that would almost certainly get him kick out of the school.
"I...taught myself how to fight," he went with, hoping that the little bit of truth there was in the statement would sell the lie. "I never really went to a combat school or had a proper teacher, I just sort of picked it up on my own, I guess."
"Ohhhhh…!" Ruby said, comprehension dawning on her face, "That pretty cool; it's sorta like in fairy tales when the Hero takes up his family's sword and trains day and night to go out on and epic quest to beat the bad guy and save Remnant!"
I think you're overselling it just a tad…, he grimaced.
"I suppose," he shrugged noncommittally.
"So you wanna go for another round?" the young girl asked, abruptly switching gears, "There's still some time left before the next class, and I promise not throw you into the walls as much this time!"
Jaune sighed but reluctantly stood back up. The things I do to get a girlfriend…, he bemoaned.
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
"What happened to you?" Kyu asked as Jaune trudged back to the vending machines.
"I got caught in a rose tornado," he said, limping slightly. "Have you ever been in a fight with someone who was personally invited to a Huntsmen academy by its headmaster? Because I have, and it's not pleasant."
Kyu just stared at the bruised young man curiously. "You know," she said, "normally the guy's supposed to say 'I let them win' or something equally as macho." Eventually she waved it off, "Eh, it doesn't matter as long as you got the girl in the end. Speaking of which, did you?" Her eyes sparkled in anticipation of the answer.
"Well," Jaune said, "she told me 'let's do this again sometime' before she headed off to class, so it's possible." He sighed, "Though next time, I really hope she wants to do something that's a little more forgiving to my person…."
"Well, you won't know until it happens," the Love Fairy advised sagely. "In the mean time, shouldn't you be getting your tush to your next class? Who knows? There might be a cute Honey there that catches your eye!"
'Because you won't get chewed out for being tardy,' he added in his mind, tiredly heading in that direction, 'not at all! It's not like this is a school or anything!'
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
Kyu's Naughty Confessions blog })i({
Big things in small packages...giggity.
Hey there sexy people, it's Kyu})i({ again! Sorry about the dry spell, I've been busy with…"other things" that ate up my "time" |-D, but I'm back now, so let's get to what you all come here for!
Poll results! \(^w^)/
But seriously, thanks to everyone who voted while it was up, you guys are both awesome and strangely precognitive. Who would have thunk the highest voted Honey would be the next one Mr. Adorkable ran into? ...OK, so maybe I nudged him in the right direction based on the results (^-^'), but can you really blame me? The guy can't mack on women to save his life; sometimes drastic measures need to be taken!
Anyway, this date was pretty different from the last one, that's for sure! For starters, the Honey this time was a girl he met on his (and hers, by association) first day at school! It's a little cliché (he he, height jokes!) but that just makes them all the more cute as a couple! (o^-^o)! They sparred for a while, with Sir Scraggly gallantly held himself back so as not to outshine fair maiden and totally didn't get his butt handed to him on a silver platter, heh heh heh…. (^-^') Then they talked for a little while, and while it still needs confirmation I feel there's a good chance those two crazy kids will meet up again in the future. (Ruby = Hearts x2.)
And now for the comments! Still not very many…. (-_-). C'mon people, I want to interact with you! Me: Kyu Sugardust! It's like my crack!
Anyway, XBossLadyX says "That Pyrrha Nikos girl reminds me a little of my sister Artemis." You know, now that you mention it, I can kinda see it! Very interesting…. (*thinking*)
OG_cupid says "Um, excuse me Sugardust, but WHO is the one everybody associates with this gig?" Dude, tone down your ego a bit; people think of the old you, back before you were able to braid your armpit hair! Xp
(not that)_blu_gurl34 says "This seems interesting, though the fairy shtick seems a bit much." Ain't no shtick about me, Honeycakes; I'm the genuine article, wings and all!
And that's it. (T^T) Be sure to vote on the new poll this week, and pleeeaaase ask me questions! I'm needy, and not always in the way batteries can fix. So until next time, see you sexy people later! })i({
