"Hello."

Jaune paused, looking away from Ruby and Penny, who were chatting happily about some kind of new weapons technology from Atlas, as he heard someone talking to him.

"Oh, hi there. Do you need something?"

He didn't recognise her. She had darker skin, a bright blue beret, and what looked like a symbol of some sort on her forehead in gold. And she was probably from Atlas if the way she held herself was any indication. He liked her beret... Ah damn, he wasn't listening again.

"-ame is Ciel Soliel, from Atlas Academy. It is a pleasure to meet you."

He could guess at the words he'd missed and put a smile on his face as he took Ciel's outstretched hand, shaking it. It was... Perfect? Jaune couldn't think of any other way to describe the handshake.

Up, down, pause, release. It was absolutely perfect, and that was a little weird. Penny's handshake was also rather perfect when they introduced themselves to each other earlier... Was robot-like precision when handshaking someone a course at Atlas Academy or something?

Shaking his head, he refocused, meeting her eyes as she sat down next time to him on his chair across from Ruby and Penny. "It's great to meet you too, Ciel. I'm Jaune, Ruby's friend. Are you here with Penny?"

The girl nodded sharply, glancing over in the redhead's direction and then down at her watch. Was she in a rush to be somewhere? If she was, then why had she started to talk to him? "Indeed, I am on Penny's team. We will be participating in the Vytal Festival."

He nodded, having expected that, and smiled her way. "Awesome! So am I. So is my team, I mean. I'm the leader of team JNPR."

He winced internally at his awkwardness, he'd just been invited to hang out with Ruby and Penny and tagged along, but he really wasn't mentally prepared to meet someone new, let alone someone who was a cute girl.

He noticed her checking her watch again and cocked his head to the side. "I'm sorry if I'm keeping you. You go do whatever you need to."

He wasn't expecting Ciel to wince at his words, tucking the hand with the watch on it into a skirt pocket. "Ah, no, I am fine. Penny invited me to 'hang out', as she called it, today. I am told it takes a while. I have nowhere to be other than this, I am merely... Keeping track of time."

Jaune hummed, before shrugging and smiling at her. Ciel talked a little weird, almost like a robot, but it was funny and quite charming. "Alright then, fair enough. I feel bad for you, though, Ruby seems to have stolen most of Penny's attention."

Ciel looked at the pair, who had moved on to discussing the pros and cons of different types of machining oils, and raised an eyebrow at him. "As has Penny regarding Ruby's attention."

It was then that Ruby and Penny disappeared in a burst of red and green Rose petals, flying off into the city at high speed, leaving Jaune and Ciel sitting there staring at the chair they had been sitting in. Jaune turned to Ciel, a disbelieving smile on his face.

"Did they really just-"

"-Forget we were here and fly off to go do something? Yes, I believe they did."

Jaune burst out laughing at that, shaking his head. "Leave it to Ruby to get so engrossed in tech talk that she forgets she brought me along. It'd be upsetting if it wasn't so funny."

Ciel glanced at her watch, a frown on her face as he laughed, and when he finally calmed down, he noticed that she seemed confused. "Is everything alright, Ciel?"

The girl gave him a slow nod but was still frowning. "Indeed. I had put aside at least 4 hours for Penny today, her lack of specificity was rather frustrating so I played it safe, and now that she has run off I find myself with... Unscheduled time. I am not a fan of unscheduled time."

She glanced at her watch again, and Jaune hummed. "Well, if our friends are gonna abandon us like that, do you wanna hang out with me? We can bond over our painful, soul-crushing anguish at how our friends treat us."

Ciel's lips quirked up into a smile and he grinned at her. Checking her watch again, she shrugged. "Sure, just give me one moment."

Ciel then pulled out her Scroll and went into what looked like a calendar app, removing a large green box and replacing it with a slightly smaller yellow box. "There we go, I have updated my schedule from 'hanging out with Penny' to 'hanging out with Jaune'. Now that that is done... What do we do now?"

Jaune snorted to himself about her literally scheduling him into her day but chalked it up to a personality quirk. Lord knows he spent enough time around people who were odd or crazy in some way.

"I don't know really, most of the people I hang out with are either on my team or Ruby's, so we train or study or something like that. But since you're an exchange student for the festival I don't think you even do Beacon classwork... Wanna, uh, watch a movie or something? That will use up a good chunk of the time it takes the girls to realise they've abandoned us."

Ciel hummed, cocking her head to the side slightly as she looked at her watch, her finger tapping against her arm alongside the ticking. "I do not usually watch movies."

Jaune deflated slightly. "Oh, we can do something else I guess?"

Ciel shook her head, opening the CCTnet browser on her Scroll and tapping in some words into the search engine. "Apologies, that sounded more dismissive than I meant it to. I was merely stating my unfamiliarity with movies. I am fine with going to watch one. Which would you suggest?"

She turned her Scroll in his direction and he realised she'd looked up the website for the nearest movie theater. He scrolled down the list of movies until he found one he deemed safe.

Not a romance movie, he barely knew this girl and even if she was very cute he'd learned his lesson on being too forward from his experiences with Weiss. Not the X-Ray and Vav movie either, no matter how much not picking it hurt his soul... It was too niche an interest to make a new friend sit through without knowing if they were a fan too.

That left either an action movie or... A documentary on trains and their impact in the Great War? He was about to count that out and suggest the action movie when he thought of something.

If he was right and Ciel had some sort of fixation on scheduling and timing, as her literal schedule for the day and habit of checking her watch indicated... Maybe she would like the train movie? He certainly wasn't disinterested in trains.

"How about this one? It's a documentary, actually wait sorry, a slight dramatisation it says here, of something called the "Railstar 390" and its impact on supply lines in the Great War."

He had been hoping it would catch her interest, but the seemingly blank-faced girl exceeded his expectations as she immediately perked up, her mouth opening in surprise.

"Are you sure that it says the Railstar 390 specifically?"

Shocked by the sudden interest, he nodded, turning the Scroll back towards her so that she could see for herself. and her face lit up, a massive smile appearing on her face. "This movie. If we're watching one, it will be this one."

Jaune hadn't had an issue either way, so he just smiled at her and nodded. "Sure! I don't know much about history, but the company that made this one has done some stuff I've seen before, so it should be good!"

Checking the map, he reminded himself where exactly the theater was, and then they headed off to watch the movie.

"Jaune I'm so soooorrrryyyyyy!"

Jaune could only chuckle awkwardly as Ruby clung to his hoodie like her life depended on it, tears in the corner of her eyes. He'd gotten back to Beacon after watching the movie, appropriately named 'Master of the Rails', to find her waiting outside of JNPR's dorm room to apologise to him.

That had been half an hour ago.

His hoodie was now slightly damp with what he hoped were tears, and her teary apologies had caught the attention of teams RWBY and JNPR. Usually, that would be fine, and they had left them alone by now, but with the way Yang had glared at him after seeing Ruby's tears, it had been clear that it was his job to cheer his best friend up.

Like he had been trying to, for half an hour.

"Seriously, Ruby, it's fine! You got distracted, and that's fine, seriously! Me and Ciel hung out instead, so please, don't worry!"

Finally, that seemed to get through to Ruby, a confused look growing on her face. "Wait, who is Ciel?"

Jaune almost facepalmed at Ruby, but with how distracted the girl had been, he honestly couldn't blame her for not noticing the quieter girl. Wait... did that mean that Penny wouldn't remember who he was, either?

Oof.

Shaking his head, he cleared that from his mind and responded to Ruby. "She's one of Penny's teammates. Darker skin, blue beret... Has Penny seriously never mentioned her? She invited Ciel out yesterday before the whole... Y'know..."

He was worried that would set her off again, but Ruby pulled herself together now that her sadness' momentum had been paused, and her tears faded after a while, replaced by a guilty look.

"W-well, that's good, I guess. Still, I abandoned you after inviting you out... Is there any way I can repay you?"

Jaune put a hand on Ruby's shoulder, smiling softly down at her. It was really sweet of her to be so beat up about this, but... "Ruby, I'm fine, really. I had a great time with Ciel, so I'm not even upset, alright? Don't get too twisted about this or I might have to drag you out of another Crater."

Ruby let out a laugh at that, before flopping to the ground next to him and sitting with her back against the wall now that all her nervous energy had been neutralised. Sitting down next to her, he laughed softly too. No matter how many times he thought about it, seeing Ruby all exploded like that was always a funny memory.

"So, then... You had a great time with Ciel, huh?"

Her guilty tone of voice was completely gone now, causing Jaune to internally groan at the clear insinuation Ruby was making. But even so... If he blushed or stuttered it would only be showing weakness, and girls fed upon weakness like piranha when it came to gossip.

"Y-yea, I did. We went and saw a movie about this super cool battle-train from the Great War."

'Damnit, brain! Why on Remnant would you stutter after getting express instructions not to?!'

He sighed, knowing what was coming next. You don't grow up with 7 sisters and not have experience getting teased for any signs of interest in a girl whatsoever.

"EEEEE! Oh my god, Jaune! You went on a date?! You turned getting abandoned into a date!"

Jaune winced at the sheer pitch of Ruby's squeal and felt his cheeks going red at her words, warmth infesting them. "C'mon, Rubes... It wasn't a date. Sure, Ciel is actually rather cute, especially when she's gushing about trains, and is, y'know, generally a great person all around, but we just met each other today. Even if we hit it off a crazy amount, there would be no way she has any interest in me like that-"

RING RING RING RING!

Ruby paused her teasing to pick up her Scroll, and her face lit up seeing who was calling. Hitting the accept button, she held a finger up to Jaune to ask him to wait a second, and he was more than happy too. "PENNY! Salutations to you, too! What's up?"

Ruby nodded as Penny talked, but seeing as she was on the other end of a Scroll call, Jaune couldn't hear her, only getting Ruby's side of the call. "Uh-huh, yeah, I've apologised to Jaune already. Oh, you apologised to Ciel as well, that's good. Yeah, Jaune told me her name. Oh really? Oh did she, now?"

Jaune gulped at the excited look Ruby sent his way at that last bit, a smug glimmer in her eyes that had him very worried. Ruby's expression dropped slightly after that, and he figured why when she said her goodbyes to Penny before the other girl clearly hung up.

"So that was Penny."

"I assumed."

Both of them laughed at his deadpan tone, and after a moment they calmed down. It was then that the dread came back. Ruby was giving him quite possibly the smuggest, more terrifyingly 'I was right' look that he had ever received. "Sigh... What?"

Ruby shrugged, looking in the other direction as she texted something to Penny, before shutting her Scroll off. "Oh, nothing major. I was just thinking that this thing Penny told me was funny."

Jaune sighed, knowing he was going to have to drag this out of her, whatever it was. "And what did Penny say that was so funny?"

Ruby grinned at him, shaking her Scroll back and forth for a second. "Oh, she just asked for your contact details. Apparently someone actually very much enjoyed their day out and wants to do it again sometime..."

"Wait, what?!"

Ruby exploded into Rose petals and appeared next to her dorm room, shooting him a grin. "Goodnight Vomit Boy!"

With that she slammed the door shut and left him alone in the hallway, confused as hell. He was there for a minute or two before he was brought out of his stupor by his Scroll going off. Unlocking it, he tapped at his messages and saw one from an unknown contact.

[Unknown] - Hello Jaune, this is Ciel. I was surprised by the quality of the movie, as well as my enjoyment of our time together. Would you be willing to meet with me again on Saturday to view another movie?

Jaune's eyes widened as he read the message. Ciel wanted to watch another movie? She'd been surprised at how much she enjoyed spending time with him? Jaune couldn't help the blush on his cheeks as he read that.

He knew she was a bit awkward when it came to talking, acting almost like a robot when she spoke, but c'mon, did she really have to come out and say it like that?

Tapping out a message in response, Jaune stood, smiling to himself as he entered his own dorm room and flopped onto his bed. He wasn't tired yet, so he likely wasn't going to sleep just yet, but he still needed to lie down.

[Jaune] - Hey Ciel! I would love to. Any particular movie in mind? If not, we can always just figure it out when we get to the theater. Where should I meet you on Saturday?

After giving up on Weiss, he hadn't expected to ever get the interest of a girl, and now he had a super cute girl from another school asking him to go watch another movie?

Even if she wasn't asking him out, it was still more than he had been hoping for!

Ciel hummed to herself as she got Jaune's message in response, an odd thumping in her chest.

How long had it been since anyone had chosen to spend time with her? That was rhetorical, of course, She knew what the answer was. If you didn't count Penny, who had deemed her a friend upon their first meeting and was quite literally a robot who couldn't tell Ciel was... Slightly odd, then...

Tapping a finger on her arm, she thought for a moment. 4 years, 32 days, and 16 hours. She didn't have the precision wristwatch she now owned at the time, so she couldn't track the exact minutes or seconds, but that was no fault of her memory, just a lack of proper equipment at the time.

Her obsession with time and keeping track of it had thrown off many a 'friend' in her younger years, much to her initial dismay. She didn't care much nowadays, her focus being on becoming a Huntress and joining the fight against the Grimm, but...

It felt... Really nice, actually, to have someone just be willing to spend time with her. Jaune had clearly offered to 'hang out' together the first time as some kind of pity, towards himself just as much as her, but she had found herself genuinely enjoying not only his company but the entertainment he had chosen.

She made no attempts to hide her fascination with time, or with trains, during their outing, but even still, Jaune hadn't seemed put off by it in the slightest. It was wonderful. She wanted to talk to him again. Wanted to 'hang out' with him again, whether a movie was involved or not, she realised with a start.

Was this a normal reaction? Or was it something born from her lack of experience with people? There was no way for her to know, but she did know that she liked 'hanging out' with Jaune, and wanted to do so again, many times in the future.

"That is wonderful news, my friend! Now, from my research, the optimal response to his response is some variation on the phrase; 'Great, then it's a date!'. This exact phrase appears in over 150,000 conversations I have been given access to, taken from both fictional stories and real text messages!"

Ciel sighed at Penny's words. She felt very out of her depth with this whole situation, and to make matters worse, the only person she was capable of getting advice from was Penny, maybe the only person on Remnant who had less experience with, or knowledge about, dealing with other people than she did.

So while she honestly somewhat doubted the accuracy of Penny's advice, especially due to her essentially crowdsourcing said advice from the internet, a notoriously lawless place… She quickly tapped out the message anyway.

Because, well… She didn't really know what she was doing either.

[Ciel] - Splendid. Then it is a date. We will meet at the Bullhead docks at 12:00

Jaune had just stared at the message.

In fact, he had stared at the message for so long that he had fallen asleep and then woken up again in the meantime, only to continue to stare at the message again until classes had started that day. Then, he had shown it to Ruby at lunchtime, and Ruby had immediately gushed to the table about Jaune's upcoming 'date'.

The rest of his friends were happy to celebrate this fact, not least so Yang, who noogied his head like his older sisters used to while making fun of his 'thing' for Atlas women, and Weiss, who just seemed happy he wasn't going to be trying to serenade her anymore. Pyrrha had congratulated him and then gone to the bathroom with Nora when the shorter girl asked her to, which was nice. She really was the best partner he could ask for.

But finally, Saturday came around. He stood, waiting at the Bullhead docks at 11:55am, in what he was tentatively calling his nicest outfit. Having almost been kneecapped by a disbelieving Yang when he told his friends that he was planning to go out in his hoodie and jeans again, he was forced into a new wardrobe by the girls of RWBY.

Clad in a blue button-up, black pants, and brown boots that seemed to fit him like a glove, he had to admit that it was much better for a 'date' than his hoodie was, even if his hoodie was his most beloved article of clothing.

"Alright, Jaune, you got this. Don't be annoying, don't bug her, and definitely no guitar."

He shook his head as he talked to himself, running his fingers through his hair to get some of his bangs out of his face, and checked his Scroll clock again. 11:59am. It wasn't surprising to him that she hadn't thought to come early as well, to be honest. It just made sense that someone so focused on the time would be exactly on it-

"Ah, Jaune. You are already here, wonderful."

Right as his watch ticked over onto 12pm, he heard her voice, turning to smile at her. She was in a similar outfit to their first outing, and what was likely her normal clothes, but she had a jacket on that cut off around her midriff, as well as a pair of blue-rimmed glasses.

"Hi, Ciel! Oh wow, I didn't realise you needed glasses."

Ciel nodded, a finger coming up to tap at the side of her glasses. "Indeed, I usually wear contacts, especially when on official business where I may need to engage in combat. Unlike you Professor Goodwitch, I am unable to keep them on with telekinesis and do not want to risk losing them mid-fight."

Jaune hadn't realised that that was likely what Professor Goodwitch did when she was darting about in a fight, but that did make sense when he thought about it. "Well, there shouldn't be any combat today, Brothers willing. Plus, they look good on you."

Jaune caught a small blush on the girl's cheeks as she looked away from him and towards the Bullheads and mentally pumped a fist in the air. "Thank you. Your outfit is also very well-fitting and flattering."

Jaune snorted at that, causing Ciel to look back at him again, clearly confused. "Did I say something funny?"

With anyone else, he would assume that a phrase like that implied some level of annoyance, but even with their one time hanging out, he could tell that she meant that very literally. "Oh no, it's fine. Just laughing to myself. You're a little weird."

Her face fell at his words and he mentally punched himself in the face. 'Good job putting your foot in your mouth, you sodding idiot!'

Waving his hands in front of him, his eyes scrunched closed as he tried to fix his mistake. "I mean that in a good way, promise! You're funny weird, cute weird, not 'I don't wanna ride in the same Bullhead as that guy breakdancing on public transport' weird!"

He didn't know why that was his go-to example but he couldn't take it back now. He couldn't take back calling her 'cute weird' either, even if he kinda stood by that. He opened an eye to see her reaction to his attempt to take his foot out of his mouth and saw her with an amused look on her face.

"I… See. I shall take it as a compliment, then."

Sighing in relief, Jaune held out his elbow towards the girl, coughing into his other fist. "Well, okay then. You wanna get going?"

She nodded, sticking her arm through the gap his own arm made, and smiled up at him. "Yes, I do. We have been here for one minute and 13 seconds longer than I had originally anticipated we would be, so let us go with haste."

Snorting, Jaune shook his head and smiled at her. "Heh, you kinda talk like a robot sometimes, y'know?"

Ciel flinched at his words, going ramrod straight and staring into his eyes with an unusual intensity. "Jaune, I need to be very clear about this. I am not a robot. There are no robots that look like people. Especially not on my team, or any other from Atlas."

Jaune gulped at the sudden intensity but laughed at her joke either way. (And definitely not the small, smug look on her face as she 'informed' him of the truth) "Yeah, alright, that would be crazy. You're just regular cute-weird then, can't use being a robot as an excuse."

Ciel didn't seem hurt by him calling her weird this time, instead just clutching onto his arm slightly tighter as they walked, a soft smile on her face. "You are rather strange yourself, you know."

Laughing, Jaune's free hand came up to scratch the back of his head.

"Hoo boy, don't I know it. Let me tell you a funny story about this food fight my team and team RWBY had the other day…"