"Ow! Ouch! Gods damnit Yang!"
In response to his shouts, Jaune's sparring partner merely grinning impishly at him before ducking in and landing a few more hits as he scrambled to recover his shield.
"Gotta keep you on your toes, Jauney!" she teased, firing off a pair of shots at his feet to emphasize the statement.
He jumped back, pulling his shield back onto his off arm and growling. Annoyingly enough, this was probably the best he'd done so far in their spars.
Of course, Jaune hadn't been doing too badly until she'd knocked away his shield, from there she'd resorted to simply punching him repeatedly until he managed to get away, not even bothering to accompany the hits with gunfire.
Such seemed to be Yang's method of training him. He should have suspected that it would involve a lot of teasing, and hitting him until he learned something from it. Jaune had kind of been holding out for her to secretly be some sort of master teacher, he remembered that her and Ruby's dad was a teacher, and apparently Qrow had been one too. It hadn't been a far-fetched idea, or so he thought.
His eyes widened as he watched Yang's fist rocket towards his face, pulling him out of his distracting thoughts. He frantically ducked and swung his sword, catching Yang in the midsection. She took the hit in stride and fired a shot at him, which he raised his shield to deflect before shifting to the side to avoid her next attack. However, he wasn't quick enough to dodge the second strike, and tumbled to the ground, sword flying out of his grasp.
He lay there for a few breaths before sitting up, coming almost face to face with a grinning Yang, crouched in front of him.
"Not bad, Jaune-o" she praised, giving him a friendly slap on the shoulder. He jostled slightly at the contact, not really having expected it.
He raised an eyebrow at her, "I got disarmed twice." He deadpanned, gesturing to his sword, which was lying a few feet away. Yang, ever optimistic, just shrugged it off, "You recovered the first time and managed to land a hit on me afterwards when I came at you full speed. Besides," she said, her voice lifting on the last word as she stretched out her right arm, the metal gleaming in the sun, "Getting disarmed is no excuse to stop fighting, or so I hear." She grinned at him before lowering the arm and offering it to him, pulling him up as she stood herself once he took it.
"Seriously?" he asked, rolling his eyes at her quip. She gave him a shameless grin in response.
"So, what did we learn this time?" she asked him, like she did every time they finished a spar, no matter how it went. It was a drastically different style from how Pyrrha had taught him, with her, she'd let him know what he'd done right and wrong in each spar and how to improve. With Yang, she expected him to figure out through practice what worked and didn't, and learn to adapt. If he'd had her as his trainer when he first got to Beacon, he'd probably have died with that training style, but Pyrrha had taught him the basics and helped with a lot of his biggest weaknesses, so he could actually figure out where he made mistakes on his own now.
"Keep a much better grip on my weapons." He groused, shooting her a glare. Yang made a disapproving sound, crossing her arms. Jaune sighed and stood up straighter.
"Don't get distracted in a fight. Always be prepared for the chance your opponent isn't going to be slowed down by a hit, so you have to keep moving if they're quicker than you."
Now she let out a smile, "Good boy." She teased, "Even if you catch up to all of us, we're bound to get into fights with people stronger than we are, considering what's at stake here. You aren't as fast as your enemies, or as strong, but you're not stupid." She evaluated, "You have a mind for strategy, we all know that, its how you did so well as a leader. You're observant too, those are your advantages. You'll never overpower me, or be faster than Ruby, but you can probably outsmart us."
He took in the advice, knowing it was true. After all, he'd heard it from more than one place before. Pyrrha had said it, Ren had said it, Ozpin had even said it. Heck, this wasn't even the first time Yang was saying it.
So, how could he beat Yang then, if not with strength and skill? His eyes went to her hair for a moment before dismissing that idea. It was, if anything, more likely to get him killed than help him beat her.
Wait, there was that one thing, he remembered, something he'd found out by accident just before they'd both gotten up from their nap on the couch. He'd need a bit of luck to pull that off, but it could work.
She certainly wouldn't see it coming, that was for sure.
"Ready to go again, or should I find a new punching bag?" he heard Yang call to him. He reached down and grabbed his sword, letting his shield re-deploy into its full size. Yang nodded her head to show she knew he was accepting, but before she moved into a ready position, he grinned suddenly and spoke.
"So," he said, trying to pull off some false bravado, "How about a bet?" Her eyebrows went up in surprise, then morphed more towards a curious lift.
"Oh? Is that a smart move, Jauney? I mean, you haven't beaten me once yet."
He shrugged like that didn't mean anything, which, considering the change of tactics he was about to throw at her, it didn't. "This match, whoever wins, gets to do whatever they want to the other's hair, no restrictions." Yang's eyes narrowed at the threat implied by the chance of him winning. He knew he had her right then, she'd take it as some sort of personal challenge, and with the others now watching them talk instead of training, it'd probably look bad if she said no, especially when she seemed sure to win the spar. She couldn't pass up the chance to mess with Jaune's hair for fun, either, he was sure.
"No restrictions?" she asked, sounding maybe a small bit suspicious.
"Yep," Jaune answered, grinning, "Dye it, style it, braid it, cut it." She winced at the last one and Jaune decided to throw out his last one, "Shave it." She winced again and Jaune almost laughed at his she cringed away from even the idea of her hair being harmed, "Imagine how much easier it would be to fight without hair getting in the way!" her gaze shot to meet his, eyes flashing red for a moment beyond her control.
"Deal" she ground out, glaring at him. He took a step back apprehensively. As much as getting her a bit off balance with this was the plan, Jaune didn't exactly relish the idea of provoking Yang into anger right before fighting her.
Briefly, before their spar began, Jaune wondered if anyone watching was concerned for his wellbeing right now. He wouldn't put it past them to think Yang was about to destroy him for so stupidly joking about cutting her hair. To be fair, Jaune was pretty concerned for his health at the moment as well, so he couldn't really blame anyone else for it.
Without warning, Yang shot into action. She sprinted at him, launching a hard punch towards his gut as she closed in. He jumped aside from the blow and raised his shield in case she managed to adjust. This proved to be the right decision, as it wasn't long before he felt the impact of a redirected fist crash across his shield at an angle, sliding off harmlessly. Yang fired her gauntlet at him though, and that managed to push him back a step.
Jaune swung low with his sword in return, forcing Yang to pick between jumping over the attack or back from it. She smartly went back, firing off a pair of shots at him before closing in again. Jaune managed to dodge one shot, the other sneaking past the bottom of his shield and striking him in the hip, before Yang came in and unleashed a flurry of punches on his shield, trying to break his guard.
Doing his best to hold on, Jaune let himself concede ground, pulling back to lessen how jarring each hit was. A few blows managed to get past him, usually when Yang would switch her aim and fire a shot around the shield instead of blasting it purposefully. Whenever she did so Jaune would try to lash out at the arm firing at him to force her focus back to his shield.
Feeling his shield arm numbing from the beating he was taking there, Jaune decided to put his trick to the test. He reached in as discreetly as he could in the situation, and ripped the straps of his shield off his arm, Yang's next set of punches sent his best defense soaring away, but Jaune had known that would happen and gotten out of its path. Yang reeled back in surprise at the turn of events, and reacted too slow as Jaune got behind her and got his arms around her. For a second, she thought he was going to try and pin her, thinking it was a terrible attempt considering he hadn't grabbed her arms, but as his hands made contact she realized exactly what he was going for and her eyes widened in shock.
This was quickly followed by involuntary laughter, as Jaune had decided to take advantage of the fact that, unbeknownst to anyone else there, save Ruby and perhaps Qrow, Yang had extremely ticklish armpits. Something Jaune had found out by accident.
The rest of the group watched in surprise as Jaune furiously tickled his opponent, giving her no chances to catch her breath as she laughed and pleaded for him to stop.
Jaune laughed as he gave Yang no mercy, calling out to her, "All you have to do is tell me you lost the match, Yang."
"Never!" she shouted breathlessly, trying to squirm out of his grasp. He arms waved wildly trying to whack him away, but she had no presence of mind to try and shoot him, even if she could have managed to get an arm aiming at him.
"I could tickle your sides, too, or maybe your feet? I wonder if you're ticklish there too?" he teased, using his legs to keep hers stuck together so she wouldn't think to kick him.
"This, is not fair!" she huffed, managing to turn her head to try and glare at him. He just tickled harder, making her angry face disappear as she burst into breathless giggles again. "You're the one who told me to outsmart my opponents." He joked. This time she couldn't stop herself from giggling harder at his words. "Not what I had in mind." She managed, "Fine, I give."
As soon as she said it, Jaune let go. Yang fell down as he did, her legs shaking as she recovered from his torment.
Once she had her breath back, Yang turned her head and glared up at him, contrasted by the wide grin on her face. "You're a real jerk, you know that Jaune?" He chuckled and stuck his tongue out at her before replying.
"I had a good teacher." He quipped, offering a hand to her as she'd done for him their last match. Around them, he could hear their friends still laughing at his display of creative combat.
Yang was still grinning as well as she took his hand and let him pull her back to her feet. She still looked a little unsteady, so Jaune went to help hold her up, which, coincidentally, would have needed him to grip under her shoulder. She raised a hand up, one finger waggling at him side to side, "Nuh uh pal, I'm not trusting you anywhere near my armpits anymore."
He smirked down at her, "How about with your hair?" he reminded her, making her smile disappear in an instant as she remembered the bet they'd made.
"You." she growled, turning her eyes on him. His smirk grew wider, "Deal's a deal. Does tonight after dinner sound good to you?" he watched, maybe with too much enjoyment, as her face drained of colour, before he spun around, picking up his shield as he walked back to the house.
With an ever-rising sense of dread, Yang opened the door to her room, letting Jaune walk in, a bag in his hand. His annoying smirk was still in place on his annoying face as he set the bag down and looked around as she closed the door behind him.
"So, where we doing this?" he asked. She pointed to the stool she'd set up in front of a bureau with a large mirror attached. She'd set up a towel on the floor to catch her hair, which was probably a better indicator of how worried she was than anything else.
He nodded, pulling out a big pair of scissors from his bag for effect. Yang winced as she saw it, and quietly went to sit on the stool.
Jaune came up behind her, smiling at her through the mirror. "Close your eyes? It'll all be better as a surprise." He suggested, and Yang almost rolled her eyes, because she was already planning on doing that.
Not because she wanted it to be a surprise, but because she didn't want to watch her hair get cut away.
Once her eyes we closed, she heard Jaune shuffle away for a moment, accompanied by an idle snip of the scissors. She winced almost involuntarily, but didn't feel any change in her hair.
Of course, she had so much hair she probably wouldn't feel any of it getting cut off at first unless he was being rough.
She heard him shuffling through his bag, and then he was stepping back towards her, and putting his hands through her hair.
Thankfully, he was gentle, running his hands through her locks with grace he lacked in combat. She wondered for a moment if he did stuff like this for his sisters at any point, before wincing again as the sound of scissors rang through her ears.
The sound continued, clipping every so often as Jaune's hands moved. Yang couldn't figure out what, but something was off. She knew it might be hard to feel the hair coming off at first, even with how sensitive she was to changes in it normally, but she should have felt something, right? She didn't even feel any loose hair landing down on her or anything.
It went on like this for at least ten minutes, Yang growing more and more suspicious as time went on. Whatever the heck Jaune was doing, he was either good enough to keep her from knowing or he was just messing with her completely.
"What are you up to?" she asked aloud, keeping her eyes shut. It was a few seconds before she felt Jaune's hands leave her hair, and he responded, "About to do the finishing touches, don't you worry." He said, patting her shoulder.
Now she wasn't sure whether to be worried or not. Did he only cut out parts of her hair, to make it look terrible? Was he doing something else she just couldn't feel? She knew her hair was still there, he hadn't just gone and chopped it off.
At least there were small mercies, as she no longer heard the clipping of scissors. Instead, she felt Jaune's hands start to gather her hair together, and start to bring it up. She wondered if he was planning on putting it in some sort of silly style or something, and that was the big joke.
It was only a couple minutes before his hands stopped moving, but they kept on her hair, applying enough pressure that she couldn't really figure out exactly what he'd put her hair into.
"Alright, eyes open."
She did as asked, and gasped when she saw her hair.
She could tell right away that none of it was even gone, as Jaune let his hands drop away to his sides. Her hands came up to stroke through it carefully as she examined it.
"How, why?" she asked, she asked, eyes wide as she locked gazed with Jaune through the mirror.
He'd taken nothing from her hair, and instead had pulled it up into pigtails, which he'd let fall down over the front of her shoulders once her eyes had opened. It was identical to how she'd worn her hair as a little girl, right down to the two thin orange ribbons he'd used to tie her hair, looped into pretty bows. A tiny smile came over her unbidden at the sight.
Jaune shrugged, his face a tinge red from her reaction as she scratched the back of his head, "I didn't want to actually mess with your hair, you love it so much I'd have felt horrible forever if I did. So, I asked Ruby for any ideas of what you might like, and this was the only thing she would give me." He smiled wryly at her, "She said if I didn't use this then she would disown me forever, so I figured I had no choice."
Yang wished her sister was in the room so that she could hug her to death at that moment.
"This is how I always had my hair when I was little." She explained, "Exactly like this." He nodded in understanding, but she knew he was confused why that made her so emotional, her mind trailed off to the memory, she'd run into the house crying because her hair always got dirty when she went out to play, hanging loose down her back. She could remember how Summer had just given her that tiny smile that made everything alright before taking her hand and pulling her to the bathroom. She'd helped Yang wash her hair out, smoothed it out, combing her fingers gently as she talked about how much she loved Yang's hair, when Yang had gotten upset enough to say she wanted to cut it, and then, without a word, Summer had pulled her hair together and made it into two pigtails, before grinning at Yang and asking if she could manage to keep her head out of the mud now.
"Summer was the one who first put my hair up like this for me." She then explained to him, coming back to the present. "I wore it like this for years after she'd died as a way of remembering her, and even now it's why I keep my hair so long, because she loved it and said it made me look beautiful."
To her surprise, Jaune let out a chuckle. She turned around on her seat to raise an eyebrow at him.
"I don't think she meant that you wouldn't look beautiful without it, Yang." He said, smiling at her, "I mean, I know I joked about cutting or shaving your hair before, but you'd be beautiful even if I actually had done that."
Without warning, Yang reached up, pulling herself off the stool to grip Jaune in a massive hug. Her arms wrapped around him tightly, and he was surprised to feel something wetting his shirt when Yang buried her face in his shoulder.
"Thank you, Jaune." She mumbled, gripping a little tighter as she spoke. Gratified to see how important what he'd done was to her, even if he'd had no idea when he first did it besides the fact Ruby said she'd like it, Jaune returned the hug with a big smile, letting one hand toy with one of her newly made pigtails before he planted a gentle kiss on the top of her head. "Anytime Yang."
For the rest of the week, Yang wore her hair in pigtails, moving about with an extra spring in her step, happier than she'd ever seemed since reaching Mistral. Nobody said a word to Jaune about it, despite them all knowing that'd been how he used his bet. The closest to anyone acknowledging it was Weiss thanking him for revealing to her that Yang was ticklish, as it'd be helpful the next time she needed to deal with her rowdy teammate.