White-hot fire coursed through her veins as her lips made contact with Jaune's. She had closed her eyes so she was completely ignorant of Jaune wide eyes and was too lost in the sheer feeling of him that she didn't notice he wasn't kissing back. When she pulled away, Jaune's face was the picture of shock, his eyes were wide with disbelief and his mouth opened and closed several times as he tried to tie his now scattered thoughts into a sentence. He reached up and gently cupped her chin, smiling.

"Wow...I didn't know that...well...wow." He whispered.

Yang leaned down again and-


Right then, Yang woke back up.

She looked around as she sat up on her elbows before turning over and groaning into her pillow.

This way annoying, way too too TOO annoying.

And mildly worrisome.

What or who, you might ask?

Jaune.

Ever since the kiss (which had been a week ago and played out almost exactly like her dream except he had just stared at her, his ocean eyes wide and startled and there was no dialogue or second kiss), Jaune had been avoiding Yang, unable to meet her eyes or even look at her during mealtimes, a blank look across his face. When he would arrive at the table, he would quietly greet everyone and begin eating like a starving man, looking down at his rapidly diminishing plate of food. He would finish his meal, not uttering a word except for an occasional goodbye and almost sprint away from the table. He would opt to study - for most of his free time - in the library and had found some sort of corner to sequester himself away in, because she didn't spot him when she would walk by. Her worry was also affecting her grades and her attitude, she would zone out and stop paying attention at random times.

It also wasn't going unnoticed by many people.

Her more-than-worried teammates had endured enough of her scatterbrained shift, so they were going to put a plan into action and snap Yang out of it.


Jaune was a mental wreck.

He knew this was either a dream, or some sort of cosmic joke, because there was no way.

NOT A SINGLE SLIVER OF A CHANCE.

There was no way Yang could even consider wanting him as something more than a friend. He was barely average, he didn't have good looks, he wasn't overly powerful (as his aura was the only thing that helped him stand out), dropped any sort of overconfident act (he learned it was only hurting his image and not helping it), and he knew that they never even shared all that many interests (he assumed this as he had never really thought that she would find things like me mechanics, video-games, archery, or web-series her forte)! He had been avoiding her, although he knew it wasn't fair for her for him to try to block her out like this.

It wasn't even really fair for him either.

Because now that he had actually began to think about it, he realized just how much the blond firebrand had gotten to him. He had never paused to consider whether he felt that way, and now that he had...He was terrified.

He was scared of a lot of things, dying, failing to make his family proud, losing his friends, and hurting others, etc.

This scared him in a different and new way.

He didn't want to confront her for it to be some sort of misconstrued message, or a heat of the moment sort of thing. If that was the case, Jaune knew he would be crushed. It was a stupid, makeshift solution at best, but he knew that if he could avoid her for a bit, maybe he could postpone the inevitable talk they were going to have to endure. Maybe he could work up the courage to confront her about it, or do something, he didn't know. So Jaune - ashamed of himself and knowing it was the cowards way out - hid and ran.


Pyrrha was not stupid.

Far from it to be exact, so she noticed immediately one night when the blond leader of her affections was acting strangely, as if someone had just issued a death threat which he took seriously. Only to see the next morning that Yang -who she was still struggling to look at - was acting like someone had hit her over the head with a billy club and knocked a few of her screws loose. Jaune had assured her he was fine, but she could tell it was a lie before the forcibly flippant response had left his lips which immediately curved into his signature sheepish smile. She wouldn't ask Yang if she was fine but the blond brawler's teammates had already asked and were given the same response in a more drop-it-nothing-is-wrong-why-would-you-think-that panicky way.

So something had to have happened, and Pyrrha had a pretty good guess what happened, and she hoped she was wrong.


Jaune stepped into the class and took a deep breath as he sat in the tables toward the front. He decided to talk to Yang today, he wasn't particularly hopeful she would, but by god he was tired of running from this. She deserved an answer and he had to give her one. It didn't matter if she hated him now, he wanted to let her know. He had agonized over his choices all night and decided it was time.

He needed to ask her if she really felt like that.


Yang glared at the back of the blonde knight's head as he wrote in his notebook. She had been trying to catch him, just to talk about what this was supposed to mean for THEM, but he had drained her for too long.

She was done waiting for him to confront her about the matter.

She didn't care.

At least, she wished she didn't as she stomped down on the wedge of pain in her chest.


Jaune was idly scratching lines of notes on his paper as he listened to professor Obleck ramble on and on about the battles between Faunus and humans in the war, it was the last class of the day and afterwards it was USUALLY time to hole up the dark, dusty corner for in-depth studying... again. But he had other plans for how the day was going to play out, so he couldn't just walk away. He was tempted to see if Yang was looking at him, but he was too intimidated to even twitch his head in that direction. He sighed and flipped a page in the notebook as he wrote another paragraph, at least until Obleck's voice broke through his thoughts.

"We have a joint project that will be due next week and it will need to be worked on by two member teams. I have already assigned partners and you cannot 'switch' them." Obleck said, zooming to his desk and picking up a sheaf of papers.

Jaune paled, he had a sneaking suspicion who he would paired up with, and he suddenly wished he could be stuck in the infirmary or somewhere other than the classroom he was currently in. As the professor rambled the specifics of how the project and the expected time frames, Jaune quietly sat in his seat, praying.

'I'll even take Cardin!' Jaune thought desperately, 'At least he's calmed down a lot since the forever fall incident! Just not her! I am just not ready!'

"Ruby Rose and Pyrrha Nikos..."

'There are plenty of others to choose, I really shouldn't worry.'

"Lie Ren and Blake Belladonna..."

'Okay... Nora or Weiss, I'd prefer Weiss, at least the project grade won't be bad...'

"Nora Valkyrie and Weiss Schnee..."

Jaune groaned along with the audible sigh of Weiss Schnee, still he hoped, 'Okay, maybe it will be some other kid...'

Soon everybody was paired up, except for Yang Xiao Long and a worried Jaune Arc.

"...and lastly we have Yang Xiao Long and Jaune Arc."

"So much for me joining the clergy..." Jaune growled under his breath, in his head he cursed, 'Now it'll seem like I want to talk to her only for the project!'

"Remember, you both will need to work hard on this assignment! Don't slack off and cooperate! You are dismissed." Obleck said.

Jaune took a deep breath and packed up his bag with a thoroughness that he usually reserved for the library. He carefully put each and every single book and notebook in it's proper slot, only to see Yang at the teacher's desk, arguing with Obleck over the partner's choice.

"Why did you pair me up with Arc?!" She demanded.

Jaune winced at the blatant refusal to even use his first name, he shouldered his bag and walked down to the teachers desk. Her teammates stared at her and at Jaune as he made his way down the steps.

Each step felt like it dragged on for eternity.

He supposed it was now or never.

"Um...Yang?" He asked tentatively.

She whirled and her red eyes narrowed (Jaune felt his chest tighten at the barest hint oftears at the edges of her eyes), "What?"

He took a steadying breath and stared right her, "I need to talk to you. It's important and I want to meet you at the training field. You don't have to come and I know I have no right to ask this after avoiding you for so long. But... I just have one question."
She stared at him and blinked, her eyes shifted from the glowing red to her usual lilac,

"Fine..."


Jaune deposited his bag at the edge of the field before standing in the middle of the field, facing Yang.

He wasn't even surprised at the resounding smack that came from her hand whipping across his face. He didn't even try to brace himself and fell back, feeling more than a bit of pain sting his face. The pain felt right.

He deserved that, at least.

She stood above him, hair about to burst into flames and eyes red, "That's for ignoring what happened. What do you want to ask?"

Jaune got up and looked at her, "If I said I felt the same way, would you be willing to try it?"

Yang froze.

Jaune stared at her, a hardness and resolve to his eyes that usually only appeared when he was leading his team.

The sign of an unyielding spirit.

"You don't have to say yes or even give a response, in fact, I don't deserve a chance. I let my insecurities get in the way again, and you frankly deserve more, but I just need to know." He said.

A single heartbeat of silence.

And...

Yang punched him in the stomach, and he fell over again, grasping his ribs and grimacing in pain.

Ow.

Owowowowowowowow.

He didn't say anything but almost laughed in painful sorrow. Yeah, he blew it. What else was new? He always let his insecurities and weakness get in the way. He didn't deserve to even really be at Beacon. He pushed himself to his hands and knees only to feel the heat dissipate and vanish.

Of course she had left. He got ready to leave the field himself, he just needed a minute to get used to the pain.

Suddenly, Jaune felt himself get yanked up by his collar to his feet and his face was an inch from Yang's. Her eyes were red and blazing, his only consolation was her hair hadn't burst into fire, though he supposed it was only a matter of time.

"You are an idiot."

Jaune blinked, "I know."

"And a blind coward."

"The very definition."

"You are definitely a hopeless fool, who couldn't even see obvious flirting."

"When?" He asked, honestly confused.

"You caused me way too much stress and are a pain to deal with and frankly I wanted to beat you into paste." Yang continued on heedlessly.

"I'm sorry. I really am."

"Prove it."

Jaune knew he really only could apologize in one way.
He pulled himself in and kissed Yang directly on the lips. He tried to show how sincere his apology was, but he was not very well practiced in the art of kissing. He simply closed his eyes and tried. He pulled her close and didn't smirk or smile when her arms encircled the back of his head.

He pulled away with his eyes still closed and stepped back, "I know that I was really stupid and -mrph?"

He learned almost instantly that Yang was really good at kissing.

She pulled away and buried her head in his shoulder before mumbling, "I just had to fall for you! You goofy, stupid, blind, annoying, idiotic, cowardly, overall doofus! And if you ever put me through that much trouble again, and I will beat you up like you wouldn't believe! Got it?"

Jaune couldn't help the goofy smile on his face, "Yes ma'am."


The six people in the bushes in the far side of the field in the bushes watch the new couple with mixed emotions.


Pyrrha was downtrodden.

She wanted to be mad, but to be honest, she couldn't find it in herself to feel mad at Yang or Jaune. Yang had struck when Jaune was available while Pyrrha had waited, wanting Jaune to ask her first. She knew she had lost, but her resentment of the loss had left her.

She smiled wistfully and thought, 'I am happy for you Jaune, and you too Yang.'


Ruby was blinking in shock.

When she met Jaune, Ruby could tell Jaune would be a life-long friend. Maybe a bit goofy and clumsy, and even a bit blind, but loyal, brave, and strong when the time called for it. She was ecstatic when Yang seemed to warm up to Jaune, but she had never expected it to turn into this.

Oh well, whatever made Yang happy.


Weiss scoffed at how long it took them.

Yang knew how blind Jaune was! For the love of Monty, even Weiss could have done a better job than the blond firebrand. Then again, it wasn't like she was interested, besides it all worked out fine in the end.


Blake smiled slightly, she was happy for Yang.

She had seen the growing attraction between the blondes of their little group and knew it was a matter of time before SOMETHING was going to take place. It had taken needlessly long but whatever happened happened and Yang was happy.

Blake had nothing to complain about


Ren was shaking his head in mild disbelief.

Jaune was always clueless when it came to the fairer sex. Not that Ren would trade his blonde leader for anyone else, but how does one miss YANG XIAO LONG flirting? Seriously, he was too blind. He glanced at his childhood friend who was crouching beside him.

Nora was cooing over them ecstatically.

Ren sighed but smiled slightly.

One thing was for sure, they were back on form.


Jaune wrote down a few more notes on the battle that he and Yang had chosen, "I still don't get why you wanted to do this battle so much." He complained, "All they did is sit there and try to kill each on both sides for a month before the weather drove off the attackers."

Yang smacked his arm lightly, "Shut up, Jaune. There was more to it than that!"

Jaune laid his head on top of her's, "Okay, okay. Relax. I am almost done with the details for the project anyway."

They leaned back against the tree they were sitting under, Jaune had wanted to go to the library, but Yang dragged him outside and under the tree. He began working at the paper again, every now and then glancing at Yang when she seemed absorbed in her scroll. He smiled goofily and chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Yang asked raising an eyebrow at him.

Jaune leaned against her a little more, "Nothing, I am just really happy."

And he was.


Okay so this is it.
I feel like i have done enough for this story so far but i have a proposition.
IF you feel like you. Want to see more of this, propose a one-shot idea and I'll add it as anew chapter if I am interested (like a Pyrrha reconciliation chapter or something along those lines).
Later!
-Y.A.R.N.