Lie Ren stood over a greased muffin pan set onto the counter of the dorm's communal kitchen and lounge. Wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead, he reached for the bowl of gooey mess that would in just a few minutes be warm muffins, and in just a few more likely a mashed paste digesting in the iron gut of his oldest and dearest friend. This didn't deter him, in fact he hoped that she would enjoy this new recipe which incorporated much less sugar and much more vegetables, secreted within, disguised by their nutty texture. As he spooned even helpings into each of the shimmering cups, he noticed a shadow limp into the archway and stumble over to the fainting couch across the room. Ren sighed, and continued his work as he spoke.
"You're worried about Velvet again," he said frankly, eyeballing the cups to be sure each would yield as identical a mound of warm muffin-top. In his experience, when Jaune wasn't worried about flunking he was worried about Velvet, and there were no classes today.
"You don't understand, it's serious this time!" Jaune exclaimed, raising his hands to the sky in a dramatic plea. He grasped at nothing, and let them fall back down to his chest.
"Have you talked to her?" This was usually Ren's advice, and Jaune had yet to follow it. He usually chose a more roundabout and irritating solution when it came to social obstacles.
"I can't," Jaune said, half sighing. "Not about this." He sat up, and scooted until his back was against the arm of the couch. Ren set down his spoon and dusted off his floury hands. Without a word, he made his way to the couch and leaned against the back, crossing his arms in preperation for Jaune's latest conundrum.
"Go ahead. Tell me all about how you're overthinking something I'm sure Velvet would be happy to reassure you-"
"I'm worried our relationship is just about sex," blurted Jaune, face already slightly red with shame. Ren was stopped dead in his tracks, and rather than his normal smile of reassurance, his face was occupied by an uncertain scowl. Ren turned away from his teammate and scratched his chin with a single finger before turning back.
"Okay, yeah, that's a legitimate concern." His voice was blunt, but Jaune felt as though he'd been punched in the stomach. He collapsed back over the arm of the fainting couch until his spine was draped over it like a blanket, unable to hold himself upright anymore.
"I knew it. I never thought I'd be someone's stress ball, but here I am. You must think I'm pathetic." Jaune closed his eyes and pitied himself silently while Ren stood up from his leaning position and moved over to crouch down before his leader.
"You're not pathetic. But you do need to talk to Velvet. If you really don't know what the both of you want from this relationship, you need to talk it out. Things will only get worse if you don't." Ren felt assured in this, but Jaune was characteristically stubborn in his self deprecation.
"But what if it's true!? What if she's only using me because I'm the sexual equivalent of a fainting goat? I should have figured she'd only be interested in someone like me that way. I bet she's over there bragging about how easy I am right now." Jaune felt a warm hand clamp down on his face, fingers squeezing his cheeks together into a cartoonish kissy face. When he opened his eyes he saw Ren glaring down at him, though due to the effects of gravity he appeared to be glaring up.
"I want you to stop. And then I want you to think about what you just accused Velvet of. Does that really sound like her? You really think she'd do something like that?" Ren squeezed slightly harder until Jaune responded meekly.
"No. Velvet's not like that." Jaune felt even worse for considering the idea, but had now grown a flicker of resolve in his heart to make it up to her, even if she didn't actually know.
"Tell me what you really think Velvet is like," Ren demanded, finally releasing Jaune's mouth from his vice grip. Jaune rubbed his jaw tenderly as he looked inward and contemplated his own feelings.
"Velvet's sweet," he responded.
"And?" Ren prodded, standing up again. Jaune too took the time to right his posture, rolling over on the couch and bringing himself to a kneeling position supported by his hands on the armrest.
"She's thoughtful. And nice. And she's always smiling up at me with this big, brown eyes. And she always wants to hold hands when we walk home. And she always gets excited when she hears that old man with the ice cream cart in the park, even though I can never hear him until he's close enough to see." At this, Jaune pushed himself off of the couch and stood up, staring at his feet with a glare of determination. "And she likes to watch birds peck at the ground while we eat ice cream by the playground. And when it gets dark, sometimes she leans her head on my shoulder and I just wanna hug her and-" Jaune stopped, looked up at Ren, noticing his smug grin, and nodded. "I gotta go, Ren, Thanks."
Jaune made a beeline for the archway which lead out into the hall, and was gone before Ren made it back to the kitchen counter to finish preparations on his muffins. He was disappointed, but not nearly shocked, when he saw they had been emptied, and a bubbly ginger haired girl was kneeling beneath the counter, licking her finger triumphantly. But at the very least, it seemed Nora enjoyed the recipe.
Elsewhere, curled up beneath a pile of sheets and a down comforter, a Faunus girl pondered quietly in the dark of her dorm room. She'd been hiding away for a few hours now, anxiety pressing down on her body and soul like it was attempting to extract juice. When at last a malevolent hand tore away her comforting fortifications, the sunlight burned her retinas and caused her to instinctively hiss in discomfort. Velvet's eyes began to adjust, and revealed Coco looming over her with arms crossed and mouth curled in dissatisfaction. Velvet made her best attempt at the image of a frightened animal, but Coco was not one to buy into those sorts of acts, and before Velvet could fake a tear Coco's forefingers on her left hand had lashed out and pinched Velvet's soft nose. Velvet recoiled in pain, and began rubbing at her face.
"I have a lot to get done today, so let's skip to the part where you tell me what's wrong," Coco demanded. She was brash but Velvet needed it, or so Coco would have said.
"Sorry. I'm just worried about Jaune. Lately, whenever we meet, it seems like we always end up doing naughty things. I like it, but I'm really worried he might only keep seeing me because we kiss and... stuff." Velvet was still a bit hesitant to say the word sex aloud, unless it was into Jaune's ear. Things she was embarrassed to say just seemed to sort of fall out of her mouth when the two of them were together, pressed against one another. She liked to think it was a sign of intimacy, and compatibility. But right now, it just seemed like she might be a bit too vulnerable to his charm.
Coco took off her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose before replacing them and shrugging. "Probably, yeah. I mean you gave it up the first time you were alone together, that's gonna set a precedent."
"Coco!" Velvet exclaimed, reaching behind her for a pillow to hurl, but Coco was fast enough to deflect it as it flew at her face.
"Do you want me to help you, or do you want me to lie? Because I can't do both." Coco took a graceful step to the side before turning on her heels and settling down on the bed beside Velvet, who was now slumped over with the weight of her concerns. Coco reached an arm around Velvet's shoulder and pulled her in for a hug.
"I want him to like me for real, not just because we do dirty things in the display shed's at the hardware store." Velvet was on the verge of real tears now, not noticing Coco's rare natural blush at this short tale of lust.
"W-well then," Coco began before clearing her throat and recomposing herself, "The only way to know for sure how he feels about you is to talk to him. Why not clean up a little and get dressed, then go pay him a visit?" Coco placed a kiss on the crown of Velvet's head as she rubbed her sloping shoulder. Velvet's long ears seemed to perk up just a bit.
"Yeah..." Velvet whispered, enjoying Coco's gentle comfort. "I'm gonna get dressed, and go over there, and talk to him for real! And no matter how dreamy his eyes are, I'm not gonna get naked this time!" Velvet shouted as she shot up from the bed, raising her arms triumphantly to the sky. Her eyes burned with ferocity. "I'm not even gonna feel his crotch while we sit down, or let him do that thing to my neck that makes me forget what day of the week it is!" Velvet would likely have gone on if not for Coco asking her to stop shouting and get dressed before the people next door came to complain about the noise. Velvet agreed, and ran to her dresser to find something that said 'I'm not going to bend over any work surfaces today.'
At this moment, there was a rapping at the door. Coco stood up and crossed the room to answer, cracking the door just nought that she could poke her head through without exposing Velvet in the background, and was startled when Jaune was there in the flesh. The mist across his forehead and the slight hardness of breath indicated he had ran here, but Coco wasn't certain why.
"I'm here to talk to Velvet. It's really important," he managed to huff.
"Er, she's getting dressed right no-" but Coco was cut off by Jaune's cries of desperation.
"Velvet! We need to talk! It's about us!" Jaune shouted, and perhaps feeling overly energized by his newfound determination, he shoved the door open and peered inside. A few feet behind Coco, Velvet stood over a pile of dirty clothed that she had discarded as she dug around in her dresser for a fresh set of underwear and some casual clothes. Despite having been seen in this state of dress more than a handful of times, she felt her skin tighten and the hairs on her neck stand up, before kneeling and attempting to cover herself with a t-shirt sporting the logo of a popular gaming video channel.
"J-J-Jaune! What are- I'm naked!" She declared, too shy to even look in his direction. Jaune was beginning to feel a warmth fill him, and was sure his face must be beet red, but he pressed on with the remaining certainty that he had left from Ren's assurance. He pushed past Coco, and strode confidently into the room, stopping just short of Velvet and trying his best to look at her face and not her other, more primally alluring features.
"I need to say this! Velvet, I..." he almost couldn't get it out. But when he thought about the feeling of her head against his should, the smell of her shampoo, the slight tickle he sometimes got when her ears touched his, he only needed to clench his fists and push himself over the edge. "I like you a lot, okay? As a person, a-and as a girl! I like just being around you, and talking about stupid, boring stuff like homework and old cartoons nobody cares about anymore! I like the way you talk, and the way you smell, and the way you pretend cheese doesn't make you gassy and how you try to cover up your burps by pointing out random things on the street! And I wanna get to know you more, even if it means we don't make out or go to the hardware store anymore!" He finished as the breath ran out of his lungs, and had to inhale to keep from passing out. When he had, Velvet stood up, still pressing the t-shirt against her body, and nodded.
"I like you too, Jaune. I like the way you always try to act tough, and how hard you work to try and get better at fighting and studying, and the way you pretend to like coffee when I want to go to a cafe for lunch, and how you try to hide it when you dump it into the plant by the table because you can't tell it's just made of wax!" Velvet's voice had risen to a shout before anyone realized it. The two of them stood opposite one another, both clenching their entire bodies in anticipation of some sort of backlash. But none came, and instead, amid the silence of the CFVY room, the two of them met eyes, and tension broke into earnest giggling and eventually, laughter.
Not wanting to spoil the mood, Coco slipped out and shut the door to give them time to talk alone. And they did talk, for nearly six solid hours. About their interests, and their ambitions, and their families, and most importantly, about their feelings for one another.
And then they fucked. Hard.