Well, another chapter down, another who knows how many to go! I enjoyed writing this chapter, despite having a bit of writers block, but I think all in all it came out well. I'll leave that up to you guys and gals though. Hope you all enjoy this chapter!


Chapter 3: Dancing the Night Away

Lance adjusted the tie on his school uniform. He looked at himself in the mirror, fixing a part of his hair. He smiled and nodded as he looked at his reflection.

"You look good," Ruby said.

"Oh, heh. Thanks."

He turned and saw her in her dark red dress with black accents that went to about her knees.

"Y-you look beautiful," He said.

Lance couldn't quite find the right words.

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Oh, thanks, Lance. I appreciate it. I don't really like dressing up like this."

Her face grew flush, if only a little. She held her hands in front of her. Her gaze turning somewhat down.

"Where is everyone else? I take it they're all ready?"

"Yeah, I think Yang and Weiss went early and Blake left all dressed up."

"So we're the last ones then, huh?"

"Well, the dance doesn't start for another half hour, so if we leave soon I think we'd be fine."

"I think I'm pretty much ready."

"Me too," Ruby said, nodding.

"Well, shall we get going?"

"Yeah, let's go."

Lance started walking towards the dorm's door. He grabbed hold of the nob, ready to open it for Ruby. She walked over as well, but she struggled with her heels.

"You okay?" Lance asked.

"Y-yeah, I'm… Fine!" She said with a yelp as she tripped, falling forward onto Lance, who caught her just in time.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Thanks, Lance," She said, looking at him. He smiled when he noticed that her face was a tad bit redder than before.

"Let's get you balanced," He said, helping her.

"Sorry about that."

"Oh, don't mention it. I'm just glad you didn't fall."

"Same here, heheh…" she said, rubbing her arm.

Lance opened the door.

"After you," He said.

"Thanks," She said, smiling and began to walk through the door. Once she was through, Lance followed, closing the door behind them.

"Awww, you look beautiful!" Yang exclaimed.

Ruby struggled as she continued walking as Lance was behind her.

"Can we have a serious talk about how Weiss fights in these?" Ruby asked.

Yang laughed as she struggled to walk and keep her balance. Lance had a bit of a laugh as well.

"You look very handsome as well, Lance," Yang said, imitating a purr.

"I try," Lance said, rubbing the back of his head.

"You look beautiful as well, ya know," He replied, walking over to the podium she was at.

She wore a simple yet stunning white dress that went to about her knees as well.

"Thank you, Lance," She said, with a smile that was contagious. He couldn't help but smile as well.

"Have you seen Weiss or Blake yet?" Ruby asked.

"Weiss is here, but I haven't seen Blake yet," Yang said.

"Huh. I thought for sure she'd beat us here," Lance said.

As if on cue, the door opened, revealing Blake on the arm of Sun. Sun had a similar shirt to his usual, but black and buttoned up, along with a tie. Blake wore a black dress, but it seemed to have a purple hue to it. She also wore a different, teal-ish, bow.

"You guys made it!" Yang said.

"Of course we made it. We weren't planning on missing out on the fun," Sun said.

"The party's just starting, so come on in."

"Gladly," Blake said.


Lance stood off to the side, along with Weiss and Ruby. They watched the students dance to a graceful melody that carried through the ballroom. Lance looked into the crowd of dancing students to see Yang dancing with Blake.

"I'm glad that she decided to come to the dance," He said.

"Me too. It looks like she's really having fun," Ruby said.

Yang and Blake finished their dance by doing a small bow to each other. Sun walked over to continue dancing with Blake as Yang walked over to the rest of team RWBY.

"Told ya she would come," She said.

"Mission accomplished," Weiss replied.

"So… what do we do now?" Ruby asked.

"Just have fun!" Yang said, grabbing Lance by the arm and walking to the dance floor.

"Does that mean I can change out of these stupid things and into my hood now?" Lance heard Ruby say as they walked off.

Yang took Lance's hand in hers. Lance looked to see how everybody else was dancing and pieced together the posture and where the other hand went, which was on Yang's hip. They began to dance, and Lance felt his nerves getting to him. He tried to keep up with the pace of the dance, but he was still somewhat stiff.

He heard Yang giggle as they continued to dance.

"What?" Lance asked.

"You're nervous. I can see it on your face… and the way you dance," She said, giggling still.

"W-well, a little, I guess."

"Just relax," She said, her giggling subsided. She looked at him with a warm smile and he felt his nervousness and anxiety melt away. His rigid as rocks posture became much more manageable and natural. They looked into each other's eyes as they danced. Lance was keeping time and his form was notably better than before.

Yang's smile didn't leave her face, and Lance could tell he probably had a similar smile on his. They danced until the song came to a close. Lance pulled her into a hug as the song was just about to end. They swayed to the last notes of the song.

She broke the hug, grabbing one of Lance's hands.

"I kinda have to go back to the podium," She said.

"It's no worries. Maybe we can try fit in another dance later on," He replied.

"That sounds great, Lance," She said letting go of his hand. "I'm looking forward to it."

With that she walked away, back to her spot near the entrance.

Lance walked back over to Ruby, who was standing over by the punch bowl.

"Hey," He said as he walked over.

"Hey there."

Lance poured himself some punch and joined her.

"Seems like everyone's having a good time."

"Uhh huh… If you call this a good time."

"I'm not huge on dances either, but ya gotta at least be having a little fun, right?"

"Eh. I'm just not really into dressing up. Or dancing."

"Oh, c'mon. Well, how about we-"

Lance stopped his sentence as he noticed Jaune walking over to them.

"Hey guys. Not dancing? Just uh. Hangin' by the punch bowl."

"Yyyup," Ruby said.

"Sorry things didn't work out with Weiss," She said.

"Mehh. It's fine. Neptune's pretty cool. I get why she went with him."

"Huh?" Lance said.

"What do you mean?" Ruby asked.

"Well, c'mon. Not many people can pull off blue hair," Jaune said.

"No, I mean, Weiss came to the dance alone."

Jaune choked on the punch he was drinking.

"Uh, what?" He asked through his coughing fit.

"Yyyeah. This is the first I've heard of Neptune," Lance said.

"Yeah, she said she had too much to focus on to worry about boys," Ruby added.

Jaune had a moment of silence. Lance traced his eye line to Weiss. It then shifted over to where Sun, Blake, and Neptune were.

"Hold. My. Punch," He said, handing his glass to Ruby. He walked with conviction off into the throng of people.

"Huh," Lance said. "I guess the Neptune thing kinda makes sense, right?" He asked, turning to Ruby, who took a drink out of Jaune's glass.

"R-Ruby!?" He said.

"What?"

"Nevermind," he sighed.

He took a drink from his own glass and started people watching.

"Oh, you were saying something before Jaune showed up?" Ruby asked.

"Oh, yeah, that. I was just gonna say maybe we should dance. Y'know, it'd be fun."

"I dunno, I'm not really a dance-y… dancer. Besides, I gotta hold Jaune's punch."

"Oh c'mon, I'm not really either. Honestly, I can't remember the last time I danced since today. It beats the heck out of sitting at the punch bowl."

Ruby looked over to Lance, a curious look on her face.

"And besides, Jaune's drink won't go anywhere if you set it down for a few minutes."

Ruby smiled.

"I dunno, it's just all the… people. And the dancing…"

"We can dance somewhere else. How about we go up to the second floor where we can still hear the music and there aren't as many people there?"

"Hmmm…"

"One dance. That's all I ask."

"Hmm… Well… One dance wouldn't hurt," She said, putting both of the glasses of punch down on the table.

Lance set his down as well.

"Ready?"

"Mhm," She replied.

They then went up the staircase to a more unpopulated area.

"I don't dance, sooo don't laugh at me," She said.

"Don't worry, Ruby. I won't laugh. To be fair, I barely know how to do this," Lance replied with a short laugh.

Lance grabbed her hand, and mimicked the dancing position like before.

"Follow my lead, okay?"

Ruby nodded her response.

They began to dance to the music.

"Y'know, this isn't so bad," She said.

"I told ya," Lance said with a smile.

They continued to dance until the song ended.

"That was actually pretty fun Lance. Thank you," She said.

Lance saw Ruby's cheeks turn a slight shade of red.

"No problem, Ruby. Anytime."

They returned to their spot at the punch bowl.

"Ohh geez," Lance said.

"What?"

"Jaune's punch is gone…"


Lance and Yang looked down from the second floor railing at all the sea of dancing students. He couldn't help but smile as he thought back on the night thus far. He felt Yang's hand wrap around his.

"What'cha smiling about?"

"Just the dance. Seeing everyone having such a good time and all. That and the fun I've been having tonight too."

"So far it has been a really good night, huh?"

"Definitely."

He looked back out, spotting his friends amongst the ocean of the few unfamiliar faces and classmates. He felt a warmth inside him. He turned his head to soak in the beauty of Yang that seemed to be radiating from her. Especially so tonight.

She noticed his gaze and met it with her own.

"Y'know, you really did do a great job with this," Lance said.

"What can I say? I try. I had help too, you know."

"Even so, I appreciate all you did for this."

"You helped too," She said, her cheeks turning a light shade of red.

"I know, but still."

"That's sweet, Lance. Thank you."

Her lilac eyes locked with his own once again. His heart was racing but that didn't matter to him.

She giggled, raising a hand to her face as she did.

"You're such a dork, you know that, right?"

"Haha, yeah, I know," He said as they returned to their spot on the railing.

"Dork in a good way though."

They continued to relax and enjoy their time in each other's company, but soon enough Ruby walked over.

"Hey guys," She said.

"Hey Ruby," Lance said.

"Yo sis," Yang said as well.

She joined them on the railing as well.

"Y'know, I think we really needed this," Yang said.

"Yeah, and you did a great job planning it too," Ruby said.

"That's funny. Lance said the same thing. Makes me think maybe I did do a good job. It wasn't all me though. Weiss helped a lot too. And Lance, I guess," She jested.

"Hey, I carried one of those massive speakers. Barely, but I did…"

"The one I carried was bigger," She said, very matter of fact.

"Oh yeah?... I got nothing," He said, slumping on the railing.

They all had a laugh at the banter between them.

"Tomorrow it's back to work," Yang said.

"Well, I'm sure we can handle whatever gets thrown at us," Ruby replied.

At that, they heard laughter coming from below. It spread like a wildfire amongst the students, piquing their interest.

"Except for that," Ruby said.

"Except for what? Ohhh," Lance said upon seeing the subject of laughter.

Jaune was making his way through the crowd wearing a white dress.

"Wwwwow," Yang said.

"Never thought I'd see that," Ruby said.

"Yeah, same here," Lance chimed in.

Shortly after Jaune's entry in his new attire, Jaune offered Pyrrha to dance. Before anyone knew it, the entirety of team JNPR broke out into a synchronized dance, as if they were some pop band. Not only were they dancing, but the whole dancefloor began to dance around them.

"What is going on?" Lance said, laughing.

"C'mon! Let's go down and join the fun!" Yang said, pulling Lance by the arm.

"Hey, w-wait!"


Lance stumbled out of the crowd of dancing people, feeling as if the floor was somewhat shifting beneath his feet.

"Lance, where are you going?" Yang said, heading over to him, wrapping around Lance's arm.

"Oh, just was gonna head out for some fresh air," He stammered.

"Don't take too long, kay?" She said, winking at him.

"I shouldn't be too long," He said, feeling his face turn redder.

She let go of his arm, waving as he made his way outside. Taking a deep breath of the night air in, he smiled to himself. He felt as if everything was right in the world. Part of him wished the world would stay still so he could hold onto this moment. He sighed, leaning against one of the walls.

"Huh?" Lance said.

He looked out at what caught his attention.

"Is that Ruby?" He asked.

Before he could get a close enough look, she wandered off around a building. He followed her trail up to a giant tower that was the Cross Continental Transmission tower.

"Ruby? What are you doing here?"

"Ah! Lance, you scared me."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to. I was just curious as to why you're out here."

She looked over to the open entrance to the CCT.

"I think I saw someone. I was following them and it led me to here."

"Wait, really?"

"C'mon, we should keep moving," She said.

She stopped dead in her tracks though after she took a few short steps forward.

"What is it?" Lance said.

He walked over and saw a guard in the bushes, unconscious.

"Oh no… this isn't good…" Lance said.

Ruby reached for her scroll, punched in a few numbers. Lance noticed and followed suit.

Shortly after two of the school's lockers careened and impacted the ground. They opened to reveal Crescent Rose and Regalia in their respective lockers.

Grabbing their weapons, they made their way into the CCT.