A/N: Hello, everybody! Essiter again with another chapter, in this thing, that I am doing. (Wonder how many of you will get that reference?)

For this chapter I thought I'd give a bit of a backstory... for the story. Also, just a hint into why everybody on RWBY has a thing for Jaune. Mostly Ruby for this one, but the others will be fleshed out in later chapters. And, don't worry Jaune will be getting them back. In a way that is appropriate for his character.

RWBY in own by Roosterteeth and the late Mpnty Oum

Clout

Chapter 2

Ruby looked at her Scroll as she laid on her bed in Team RWBY's room at Beacon Academy. After three years of complaints about not enough room, Headmistress Glynda Goodwitch had finally given them permission to change rooms. Now, they had the room for four beds and all their personal stuff.

Ruby wouldn't tell her friends, but, she secretly missed the old homemade bunk beds of theirs. Even if it had probably only been a matter of time before either the ropes holding up her bed, or the books holding up Yang's, failed and they crushed their respective partners.

She smirked at the thought.

Would have been worth it, though. Especially if they four of them could've made a video about it for their channel.

She sighed as she brought up their channel, Pollination Knight, to see how the latest video was doing. As she did, she traced a finger over the thumbnail of another video. One involving her and Jaune.

It was titled First Kiss and showed her kissing the cheek of a very tired Jaune.

She sighed again. This time in annoyance with a certain someone.

She had actually full-on kissed him in the video, after smooching him on the cheek. For the thumbnail, she had told him. But, Jaune had already been asleep by then. Exhausted after finishing a rather harrowing mission with her team.

Still counted, though.

And, even more importantly, she had been the first to do so out of her team. Oh, they had been so mad with her afterwards. She smirked again. Totally worth it.

Even if it meant she hadn't been allowed to eat anything sweet-read, no strawberries or cookies-for over a week as punishment for not discussing the matter first. Course, if a certain blond-haired knight in shining armor had come to her rescue. Well, it wasn't like it was her fault.

Especially, if she didn't tell anyone about it, right?

She frowned after a moment before flopping down on her bed with a groan. Stupid, handsome, blond idiot!

Why! Why was he just so, so damned dense! Aargh!

She writhed around a bit in silence at that before rolling onto her back again as she thought about it for moment. About how she, and her sisters had all eventually fallen for her Jaune.

/ /

After foiling a major criminal operation at the Valean docks, followed by preventing a plot to destroy Beacon Academy and the City of Vale at large, Team RWBY had been thinking that they were hot stuff. After all, they were the best team in Beacon Academy and were sure to win that year's Vytal Festival Tournament.

The only thing that would've made Ruby's day better would've been if she and Jaune were a thing. But, he was going out with Pyrrha at the time, or, at least she thought so. And, as much as she wanted to be together with him she didn't want to ruin anything between the two of them.

The Bro Code was adamant on that. You didn't steal your bro's girl. No matter what. Sun had explained that to her.

And Pyrrha was definitely her Bro. Even if, neither one of them were actually guys.

Then, things went bad.

During the Finals Round of the tournament Yang had been framed for injuring her opponent, and Pyrrha had killed Penny! Beyond that, the school, and Vale, had then come under attack from a horde of Grimm.

They and their friends had barely been able to do anything at the time. Yang had lost an arm when she tried to stop Blake's crazy ex-boyfriend from stabbing her in the side-would have been nice to know about that beforehand, Blake!

Then there had been some sort of commotion at Beacon Tower involving a Wyvern, Pyrrha and the Headmaster. The Headmaster had died and Pyrrha had almost died after a massive fireball took out the tower.

Ruby had only gotten there in time thanks to Jaune and Weiss.

Some weird shit had gone down then as the two teams of students had recovered over the next couple of months with Pyrrha being unconscious before Ruby decided to travel to Haven Academy. Her sister had been unable to come. Too depress and injured to come with her. And her partner and Blake had disappeared, too.

But, Jaune had come. Hadn't even needed to ask. He had just shown up one day with Ren and Nora in two. Best friend material, that guy. Best friend, and more.

Unfortunately, though the two of them had gotten closer over the following six months, it hadn't gone further than that. Jaune was still upset over Pyrrha's injury, and she was worried about everybody else.

Still, good things had happened, too.

At Haven, everybody had somehow gotten back together. Her uncle and Yang had found her. Blake and Sun had shown up with a bunch of Faunus Militia members-and her Parents! Gods, her dad was huge! And furry! Like a big kitty cat. It was rad!

And, while they were there, they had uncovered a plot to destroy that academy, too! And this time, they had stopped it. The Headmaster there had been arrested, as had Blake's ex-boyfriend. Good riddance!

It had ended up so well that Yang and Blake had become a couple! Finally!

There was also some kid named Oscar who had shown up with her sister and Uncle as well. He had been kind of shy at meeting them all, and Yang had said that the two of them would make a cute couple. Ruby didn't see it.

After spending some time in a house that everybody was tired of they had decided to go to Atlas Academy.

Along the way they had all started to grow a bit closer to Jaune, not as much as her, but, well, it was Jaune!

He could cook almost as well as Ren and was surprisingly good at coming up with plans, besides the whole "hit it harder" situation. She tried not to bring that up all that often, but, uh, things happened? Also, he had a really cool Semblance, that he had unlocked to save Weiss's life.

And, he was just always there when they needed him to be. Yang didn't have to worry about her as often and could just be her awesome, older sister without any of the baggage that came with it. Blake had someone who would stay up with her on watch and let her read while he stood guard.

Ren and Nora even had their brother-from-another-mother again, after all things were said and done with.

Things were going so well. Ruby felt that she might finally have the courage to tell him the truth. And, then they had met up with Pyrrha in Argus, after she recovered from being unconscious.

After a bit of awkwardness on their pair, that Ruby might've tried to make worse what with all the Team RNJR bonding, the two of them had gotten together-together as Nora put it.

Ruby, hadn't taken it so well. She had tried to ignore it. But things had gotten awkward between the three of them. So much so that her teammates had noticed.

They had tried to talk to her about it, but she had brushed it off, saying that as long as Jaune was happy, so was she. She tried really hard to believe that, but she knew that she was lying to herself.

She and Jaune? They had been close since their first days at Beacon. She had just been too socially awkward to realize how much she liked being with him, liked him.

Pity then, for any girl, that she had lost out to the far prettier and more popular Mistrali Champion. Who could hope to challenge the former Four time Champion? Certainly not the socially awkward, two years younger, in-over-her-head-at-times fellow team leader. No.

She couldn't it hold against Pyrrha, though. She had been crushing on Jaune for just as long her.

She had simply had the courage to act on it. Unlike Ruby.

She had been a little weird, there, like there was something different about her, something magical.

Still, Pyrrha was Pyrrha.

One case of awkwardness on her part and out came the classic "I'm Sorry!" After that, everything was right with the world. At least, between her and Jaune at any rate.

The rest them, Ruby and her team, had done their best to give the two their space. Give them their time together. To be happy.

Ruby was anything but.

After heading to Atlas Academy, and giving the Headmaster there, a General Ironwood, a weird looking lamp to safeguard they had left to return to Beacon. Along the way Weiss had gotten closure with her family, and her dad had been locked up for all the criminal things he had done over the years.

Her mom had been the reason for that.

From there, they had returned to Beacon Academy once it reopened, after enjoying the rest of their summer. They had had to make up their Second Year in an accelerated course thanks to everything that had happened.

And that, had been that. As far as their adventures had gone.

/ /

She blinked, looking back on things, her first year had been rather hectic, what with everything that had happened. The years since had been relatively dull.

Oh, there had been some trouble with the remnants of the more militant version of the White Fang every now and then. A few more escapades with Roman Torchwick after he had escaped Atlas custody-Uncle Qrow, and the Vale council as a whole, had given General Ironwork shit about that.

And there had been tons of missions taking out Grimm incursions.

Still, all things considered, the years since their first had gone much more like they had been thinking they would.

With one exception.

In their third year, Jaune and Pyrrha had broken up. Though he had tried everything in his power to avoid it, Pyrrha had ended things with him, publicly. She had said she was doing it for him. She had seen how all the looks and backtalk had been getting to him.

How it had begun to break him down.

He had argued otherwise. Saying that he could keep up with her, that he could handle things.

She had denied him at every turn.

She had told that was different, that he was no longer her happy-go-lucky friend and team leader. No longer her student. He could take care of himself now. And, she couldn't love him like that anymore.

Jaune, hadn't taken it too well. In point of fact, he had excused himself from the academy for a couple of months and refused anybody's call.

Ruby had suspected, through Weiss and Blake's involvement, that it was her Agent that had made her to break up with him in the first place, perhaps wanting her to be at the top of her game for the upcoming Vytal Festival.

There were certainly lingering feelings between the two.

But this time, this time Ruby wasn't going to take things lying down. In fact, none of the girls of Team RWBY were, much to their mutual shock over it.

They had realized it as they were discussing how to help Jaune, and how to help Ruby get her man. Their reasons had been interesting to say the least.

Yang said that during one of their shared workouts in the Students' Weight room that it had just hit her. And she had been secretly crushing on him ever since. Blake had said that the same had pretty much happened with her when they had been reading together one night in the Library.

Neither had wanted to say anything about it to Ruby, knowing how she had been crushing on his for years. And, they were already together themselves. It had seemed selfish.

After a while and much debating they had eventually gotten Weiss to realize her own feelings for the boy. She had argued otherwise. That it wasn't right. That she would just be another Pyrrha to him.

And then it had hit her.

After that, the girls had come to a decision. Shocking though it was, none of them wanted anyone else to hurt Jaune like Pyrrha had, and nothing of them wanted to take him for themselves, if it meant that they'd be hurting their friends, their sisters.

So, it was decided that they were going to share him, together.

Now, if only he wasn't so damned dense.

Ruby groaned again at that.

It wasn't like he was actually that dense all the time. The boy could easily see when someone else was crushing on someone, like Cardin with Velvet or Ren and Nora. She just didn't see how he could be so dense when it came to his own love life.

Blake had hypothesized that maybe he was aware of things, on some level, but that he was subconsciously avoiding it after how bad things had ended with Pyrrha.

Well, if that's how things were then Ruby had just the solution for the problem. The sort of solution that only Ruby Rose could come up with. She proposed making an account on the local CCTnet and use it as a way to get closer to Jaune.

After all, she had said, Jaune was always there to help whenever they needed him. All they had to do was use the channel to get closer to him, in the guise of simply having him help grow their channel. It had worked perfectly.

For the most part.

They were still no closer to getting Jaune to reciprocate their feelings, and, the year was almost over. And, with the upcoming Vytal Festival, they'd have even less time to be together with him as everybody would preparing to take part in it.

Oh, what were they to do?

/ /

"I'm telling you, Ren. There's something more going on there." Nora said as she watched the latest video by Pollination Knight before liking it. She smirked at Jaune's expressions. Her Fearless Leader was awesome as ever.

Not as awesome as a certain someone, but awesome. "Nora, I think you're imagining things again." Replied the certain someone, name Lie Ren, as he continued to mediate.

Nora sighed at that. So smart, so pretty, but her Ren could be such a, a boy sometimes.

Team RWBY made it known some time ago that Jaune Arc, Beacon's resident bumbling, white knight and all around good guy, was taken. And not just by one of them, oh no. By all four of the girls.

The girls had claimed that that was why Jaune was so dense with everyone. He just too nice to say anything to any of them. Hadn't wanted to hurt anyone's feeling.

When some of the other students, both male and female, had accepted that the girls had turned to slightly more direct means of getting their point across. Namely blackmail and broken knees, but no one needed to know about that.

And Winchester wasn't going to say anything after he almost ruined the polyamorous group of girls fun with their resident meat-headed potential part-friend! Definitely only friend.

Even Pyrrha, her girl, had been given just the slightest of telling offs when she had accidentally gotten in the way during one of their videos. Although, still friends with the girl, the team had made their disapproval about how she had gone about dumping the boy known.

Even Nora had approved of that.

She loved Pyrrha, too. But that had just been cruel. And all for a sponsorship? She should've told her Agent where to shove that proposition.

Nora smirked as she thought about how dense her brother-from-another-mother was, and how thirsty the all-girls team was for him. She had told Ren what was going on with them repeatedly, but he had only shaken his head at what he perceived as another one of her fantasies, like the Ursa-skin Rugs.

Silly Ren.

This is why it was good for her to be around, that way he didn't have to worry his pretty little head about things, like Jaune and his utter lack of skills with the opposite sex.

Not for lack of trying, though. It was just that he was horrible at it.

Though, it wasn't until the Dance that first year that everybody saw just what he could do when given the chance. Word had come around the Beacon grapevine about how he had sorted out a few relationships, like the ill-advised courtship between Neptune and Weiss, and the much longer lasting one between their cute senior Velvet, and Cardin Winchester, of all people.

And then, at the dance itself he had stunned everybody with his dancing ability.

Even Nora had to admit that he looked good in that dress. Those legs. Damn.

Nora shook her head in amusement as she thought about it. Pyrrha, she was sure, was still holding out hope for another shot at the blond knight-to-be. She just hadn't manage to get up the courage to confess. Or, more likely, she hadn't been given the chance in the first place what with all the antics Team RWBY got up to with him these days.

Almost like they planned it that way.

/ /

"Hey, Rubes!" Yang called from where she was brushing her hair. "How's the latest video doing?"

Ruby glanced at the video before going back to texting on her Scroll again, "It's already at over 100k views. Should be over two hundred before the days over."

"Wow. for the win once again." Yang cheered as she smiled and continued to brush her hair.

"And, how is Jaune doing, anyway?" Weiss asked as she replied to several messages from her Mother and brother over the most recent board meeting for the revamped SDC.

"Hold on, I'll ask." Ruby sent a quick text and waited for a reply. It came almost immediately. She winced as she read it. "Jaune says he's getting his stomach pumped. The doctor says that if it wasn't for his aura he might've had to go into surgery from how hot the peppers were."

The girls were all silent at that for a moment before Blake interjected, "Perhaps, we went too far with the video?"

"Nah. Jaune's tough. He can handle it." Yang replied, though with less than her usual confidence.

"Hmph, well, if you hadn't challenged him maybe things would have gone differently." Weiss replied sternly.

Psst. As if, Weiss-cream. You how your White Knight gets." Yang returned with a smirk. "Besides, it was for the clout! It had to be done."

"Hmph," Weiss responded before returning to her Scroll and pacing.

After that the girls when back to their nightly preparations. Blake read, Yang dealt with her hair, and Ruby focused on her Scroll. Each lost in their own thoughts.

A/N: Alright that'll be it for this one. Sorry if I bashed Pyrrha a bit too hard in this (Even I'll admit to not liking that, but it fits for the story. It's Pollination Knight, not Arkos + Pollination Knight). Next chapter will be out whenever.

Love y'all, Peace! Essiter out!