Symbiote Knight

Chapter 15: Jealousy

*Wham* *Wham*

The sounds of gloves slamming into a sandbag could hear heard over the gym activity.

*Wham* *Wham*

The fists of Yang Xiao Long hit it again in a one-two combo, her hair was tied back as sweat was on her body. She had been trying to work out this morning to try and take her mind off things. It was now the weekend and ever since Weiss had told them that she and Jaune was going to Vale, she couldn't help but think more and more about it as the day got closer.

*Wham* *Wham* *Wham*

She knew she wanted to just let it go, she knew he had eyes for another girl so it should be fine. There were plenty more fish in the sea and all that.

*Wham* *Wham* *Wham*

Then again, part of her also wondered why she was ignored over Weiss. Sure, the Atlas girl was pretty but damn it, Yang knew she was hot. She had a better figure, better hair, she certainly had a way better bust and hips. She had a better personality than miss Ice Queen, that's for sure.

*Wham* *Wham* *Wham* *Wham*

Okay so maybe Yang wasn't 'classy', she wouldn't know what wine when with what food or what fork to use. She wasn't rich or really smart, had access to all kinds of dust. Shed couldn't pull off the cold princess look even if she wanted to, so what was it about Weiss of all people that Jaune just ignored her for? Maybe what's what really bothered her? That she was overlooked or not even looked at once?

*Wham* *Wham* *Wham* *Wham*

"Okay that's enough," Blake said as she stepped from behind the bag she had been holding. She was in her work out clothing which was mainly black yoga pants and a purple sports bra top. "I know you asked me to help with the workout but are you trying to kill the bag or me behind it?"

Blake had been barely holding onto it with the forces of Yang's punches which had been getting more and more intense. If they had gotten any stronger, she was going to get thrown off the bag, so she called a stop to it. Looking at her partner she could tell that something was eating away at her. She had no idea what it was but for the past few days Yang had been acting a little distracted and quiet at times.

"Sorry just got lost in the moment," Yang said to explain away her actions as she started to take off the gloves.

"Right," Blake dragged it out not believing it. "Look you know I'm not exactly a social person…"

"You spent most of your time reading books, even those smutty ones you think we don't know about." Yang said flat out.

"What are you talking about!" Blake defended herself as she was sure she hid her more…intense stories.

"Do Ninjas of Love mean anything?" Yang smirked at her.

Blake grew a bit red in the face, she knew that title very well. She was sure she had hidden it, she even used a different book cover for it when reading it. "How did you-"

Yang interrupted her. "Big sister skills, you think Ruby can hide anything from me growing up? It wasn't too hard to figure out what you were doing given how you were being a bit paranoid on certain books. So, while you were out, I looked here and there, got to admit, didn't expect you to go for such books. It's always the quiet ones." She joked.

Blake didn't like Yang snooping around her stuff, so she decided to throw something back. "Well at least I'm not trying to vent my anger out on a punching bag."

"I'm not…venting." Yang tried to say but even as it left her voice she wasn't really convinced.

Blake paused a moment seeing Yang really was bothered by something. "Is this something serious?"

Yang didn't say anything not looking at her as she debated about opening up but Blake was her partner for the next few years and team member. They had to learn to trust each other and maybe she just needed someone she could talk to that wasn't involved in some way. Ruby was too young and was Jaune's good friend, she wasn't comfortable with talking with any member of Jaune's team for the fact they were his team. Weiss was right out for several reasons so that literally left Blake as the only impartial person.

Yang signed and sat on a bench. "I…recently realized that…I might have a crush on someone."

"Oh," Blake blinked as she sat next to her, thankfully there weren't many students this early and the few that were here were scatted across the gym and not close enough to really hear. Not with someone playing music and the sounds of weights impacting on surfaces.

"Do you want to tell me who?" Blake asked her.

Yang bit her lip debating it but she figured Blake could figure it out eventually. It wasn't like there were a lot of options given the people they hung out with were pretty tight circle.

"Jaune," Yang sighed.

Blake blinked at that. She thought something odd was going on but this was still a bit of a surprise. "Jaune Arc? The guy you keep calling Vomit Boy?"

'Oh god is that another reason he never looked my way?' she suddenly thought. 'Great my own joke comes to bite me in the ass.'

"I know, I know." Yang sighed. "Look I didn't go out and look for this, Jaune was a nice enough guy I thought but after spending more time with the dork and helping him improve his look and some of his confidence I couldn't help but notice a few things about him."

Blake thought back, Jaune had grown a lot in a short time. People like to think she was anti-social, Blake just liked to ease into things. There was also the fact she was kind of in hiding from the White Fang and years of trying not to stand out made it hard for the girl to open up. But one thing she did do well was notice things. People often forget about the quiet ones in a group and people can let slip things much more easily that way.

It had been a useful tool in the past to help gain intelligence after all.

So, she had noticed little things now and then, Jaune had gained a lot more skill lately and seemed more confident and she noticed he was doing better in classes. At first, he looked like he had been struggling but now he seemed more at ease.

So now Yang seemed to have noticed it too and also seemed to have started liking Jaune as more than a friend. There was just one problem she could see, or well one major problem.

"And he's got his eyes on Weiss." She surmised.

"Yeah," Yang nodded. "Don't get me wrong I can see the appeal, she's pretty, smart, confident, rich and isn't afraid to show off her legs."

"True although I don't get the feeling Jaune would care about the rich part." Blake commented. From her observations Jaune didn't seem like that type of guy.

"You're right he's not," Yang nodded her head it was another point in his favor that he wasn't that kind of shallow person. "But my point stands, and now they're going out on a date."

"Weiss said it's not a date."

"It's two people going out to town to have a drink of tea alone, sounds pretty close to me," Yang shrugged. "Which gets to my next issue. Say it's not and he slowly makes her change her mind about him? Then he asks her out and bang, they're dating."

"The opposite is more likely to happen," Blake thought about it. "It would take more than just one outing together to change Weiss' mind about something. You know how stubborn she can get."

Yang thought about it and the girl really didn't let go of things easily. "True…unless Jaune can convince her to hang out more which means more time with him and more time to eventually realize he's not as bad as she originally thought." She was speaking from experience, granted she knew Jaune hadn't been a bad person at the start he just didn't show up on her radar at first.

Throwing up on her boot hadn't helped.

Yang placed her head onto a palm and really thought about it. "Okay so I figured my choices were just stay out of it and let these feelings go away."

"Which doesn't look like it has been working," Blake commented.

"Or," Yang stressed ignoring that comment. "I do something about it. I could try and seduce Jaune but he's a bit dense and honestly nothing short of flat out telling him might get him to notice. But he's also interested in a teammate and while she's not interested either, I feel a bit weird trying to get between that whole thing. Love triangles might be fun in books, but it sucks in real life it seems."

Blake had to admit that some of her more adult books she liked to read a few of them had a guy with a few women as possible lovers. Of course, in her books they usually ended up all together but that's what fiction was for. Living vicariously through characters that didn't exist.

"I'm also a little worried about what might happen if Jaune asks here out and Weiss rejects him," Yang lamented. "You know how harsh she was in the past with some of her rejections. She was almost literally giving him the cold shoulder at times. I'm a little worried she might break his heart and he's too nice of a guy for that to happen to."

It brought back very old memories for her, memories of after her mother had died. Late at night she had caught her dad alone in the dark starting at a picture of mom in his hands. When Summer died, she could tell a part of her dad died with her. Yang snapped back to the present closing off those painful memories and tried not to picture Jaune going through pain like that.

"Sometimes you can't stop things from happening," Blake told her softly thinking of how she had left Adam knowing she had hurt him. Once she had loved him, but he had changed over time into something more cold and cruel. "It's not like you can be there for him in case things go bad."

Yang blinked a few times, maybe she could. "Hey that's an idea, yeah maybe I can be. Thanks Blake."

Yang sat up as she quickly went to the showers to clean up and then get ready, she had a plan and she needed to hurry if she was going to catch up.

Blake was left confused, "Wait what? What did I say?" There was no answer from the blonde as she was quickly gone. "I have a bad feeling about this."

-JNPR Dorm-

Pyrrha was feeling antsy, she wanted to get up from her chair and pace the room or do something. Ren was out with Nora, apparently, she wanted pancakes, and he knew how she liked them. They ate a bit later for breakfast as Nora liked to go to the gym with Yang in the mornings but this time, she just slept in.

Pyrrha had just changed from her morning run but still felt like she needed something to do, something to take her mind off the fact that Jaune was in the bathroom getting ready for his not-date with Weiss. She reminded herself that she was his friend and partner and now his girlfriend, no matter how much she desired it.

She sighed as she sat down on her desk as she asked herself when did this happen? When did she start to realize her feelings for him were more than friendship? Thinking back, she had been intrigued when he had no idea who she had been. She wasn't sure what to make of him at that moment, his attitude had clearly been forced in her eyes but still she wasn't sure.

Then as she saw him falling out of the sky and in trouble, she did her best to help him out. Many little things didn't ad up, the fact he seemed to have no formal training or even have his aura unlocked still made her wonder what he wasn't telling her. She knew he had some kind of secret, but she wouldn't pry, she just hoped he would trust her enough to tell her in his own time one day.

Training with him she got to know more about him, the real him. He always tried to push himself, to improve. Maybe even more than he should have, she was worried at times he would push himself too hard. She had seen this before on her way to being a three-time champion. Too many would push themselves and they would either be stronger or they would break.

She didn't want to see Jaune break.

He was just too kind, he had a huge heart and wanted to help others that much she knew for a fact. It was learning that about him which she figured what really earned her affection. Jaune treated her like a normal person and not someone to put on a pedestal. He would do anything for her not because she was famous but because it was the right thing to do and because he did care about her.

But only as a friend.

That stung deeper than she would admit. She knew she could have had any number of men if she desired it but none of them saw her as just Pyrrha. She wanted to be with someone kind and loving, someone she could be herself with.

The door opened as Jaune stepped out in fairly well-designed clothing.

'Wait, where did he get those clothes?' she mentally asked herself. Given the small room it wasn't like you could hide much and clothing like he was wearing looked expensive. She hoped he wasn't using all his money on a single set of clothing.

Jaune looked down at himself, the 'clothing' was actually Valor. They had spent the last few days looking up fashion styles, Jaune even went to Coco for advice. That had been a long three hours as she had given him a long lecture on current fashions. But in the end, it had been worth it. He had on dark blue dress pants with a yellow dress shirt and white jacket. He hoped it looked good as he wanted to as Coco put it 'dress to impress'.

"Hey Pyrrha, so how do I look? Is it too much?" He asked her thankful to have a woman's opinion.

"You…look great," she blinked as he did in her eyes. "Where did you even get those clothing?"

"Oh, uh…" Jaune hadn't thought of an explanation. "Coco helped me out?"

"Oh, really?" She asked.

"Yeah, sure totally," He hoped she wouldn't ask Coco, but he had a feeling she wouldn't go that far.

~We need to come up with excuses in the future if people ask about the clothing~

'Yeah, that's for sure, I can only use that so many times before someone actually asks Coco about it in passing.'

"Aren't you going a little too much with this?" She hesitantly asks him.

Jaune shrugged. "I know it's not a date, but I still wanted to at least show I can at least dress up nicely for events like this." He figured if he could at least show off a little bit she might take more notice. He figured the problem before was he came on too strong which Valor agreed with. This time, he was going to take a slower approach.

Checking his scroll, he found that he had better meet with her as they were to meet in the hallway.

"Well, I better get going, have a good day Pyrrha," He told her as he left the dorm.

"Yeah…good day." She sighed.

What in the world was she going to do? She didn't want to stay in this room, she just couldn't stand still either. She wanted to get up and do something, maybe try out a combat simulator? Or she could go to the gym? Nothing she could think of she felt like actually doing. Her mind kept worrying on what could happen on this outing.

In the RWBy dorm Weiss was finishing adjusting her attire, she was going with her white long sleeve jacket and skirt outfit. She didn't feel like her combat clothing so this was her best bet. While this certainly wasn't a date, she also wasn't one to not present herself in a manner unbefitting of herself. Yang had barged into the room, taken one look at her and then went into the bathroom while grabbing some spare clothing.

Normally Yang would have still been at the gym, but Weiss shrugged it off. After doing the finishing touches, she saw that it was a few minutes until they had to meet. She gathered her purse and left the dorm room. Looking across the hall she could see the JNPR door, at least this made it easy enough for them to meet up being across the hall from each other. When the door opened Weiss looked and her eyes widened a bit.

Now Jaune had certainly changed since his first days here, he had slowly shown to be more confident, the hair into a much stylized and neater version of his old hair helped to project a sense of confidence. The clothing she recognized as very expensive, in fact she hadn't thought he could even afford such luxuries given how he used to dress.

'More and more questions,' she thought although the clothing certain did make him cut quite the figure. She shifted as she tried to not think in that way about him, this was not a date only an outing between…well what were they? Not exactly friends but not strangers either. Fellow students? Colleagues? Friend of a friend?

"Wow, you look really nice Weiss," Jaune said looking at her. The white jacket with black trim and thigh high boots looked very nice on her. "Well not that you don't normally but I wasn't expecting you to dress up more than usual."

"I could say the same for you," she returned her eyes cast a simple look over his outfit. "How on Remnant did you afford clothing like that?"

"Oh, I got help from a friend," He quickly threw out and quickly changed the subject hoping she wouldn't dig any deeper. "Plus, I just wanted to look nice, I know it's not a real date or anything but that still doesn't mean I shouldn't at least dress nicely with company, right?"

Weiss thought it over and found that acceptable, and he was correct. In her mind if you're going out you should at least be presentable. She had to admit he did clean up nicely, if he behaved like had had been doing up to now, she might even find herself enjoying her time. She was starting to enjoy her time with this new Jaune Arc who didn't constantly pester her with offers of a date.

Just as they were about to leave the RWBY dorm room door quickly opened up as Yang stepped out.

"Hey if you guys are going to Vale mind if I take along to the Bullhead station with you? I wanted to check some of the stores we saw earlier." Yang lied. Sure, she could do that, but this would give her an excuse to at least keep a subtle eye on things. She wouldn't get in the way but that didn't mean she couldn't watch from a distance. If Weiss broke his heart, she could swoop in to ease his pain and if things between Jaune and Weiss progressed, well, she needed to know that so she could back off.

She never was one for patience and waiting around for them to get back and trying to get anything out of Weiss might take even longer. Beter to just see with her own eyes how things went between them.

"I don't see why not," Weiss shrugged in her mind this was just an outing nothing special.

Jaune shrugged. "Sure, thing Yang, anything in particular?"

They had seen a few stores when Yang was helping him with his clothing so it stood to reason, she had to have seen some things that she might like to get for herself. Vale was a big city after all, and he had only seen a fraction of it by this point.

"Not really just wanted to take a good look around this time, maybe see if there's a bike shop nearby." Yang actually did need to make sure there was a place for her to keep the maintenance up on her precious Bumblebee. Maybe if things went well, she could have extra time to look at a few shops after all.

What they didn't know what that behind the JNPR door Pyrrha could hear everything. She had been about to leave when she heard Jaune and Weiss speak and hearing them compliment each other's looks, especially with Jaune on how Weiss looked, made her heart hurt. She was about to leave when she heard Yang suddenly show up asking to join them while she was going to Vale.

This left Pyrrha very conflicted because it gave her an idea to try the same thing. She hated lying, mainly because in a way she had been forced to do it all the time during her career. She had an image to protect like her manager had told her often enough. So, when she had finally quit and gone on to be a Huntress, she wanted to leave that behind.

'But if you say you wanted to go with Vale with Yang to join her you can keep an eye on Jaune and Weiss.' A voice in the back of her head told her. She bit her lip, it wasn't exactly sounded like something she should do, but the more she just stood idle the further away Jaune would get. She knew she only had seconds to think, and to act. She heard Jaune and Weiss agree, and that Yang would be going with them. The window was nearly closed so without thinking anymore she opened the door.

"Yang, did I hear you were going to Vale? Do you mind if I go too, even for a bit?" Pyrrha asked.

"Oh, uh…" Yang paused surprised by this development it would be a nice cover but how would she ditch Pyrrha to keep an eye on Weiss and Jaune?

"Oh, that will be marvelous," Weiss stated as she walked up to Pyrrha and took her hand and pulled her along gently. "You know I've always wanted to ask you a few questions."

Weiss while disappointed she never got to be Pyrrha's partner or teammate, she was thankful the girl at least was on friendly terms with her own team. This could prove to be a valuable time to get some time with Pyrrha since Weiss still admired Pyrrha for her skills and abilities. She never got to really spend any time with the red head as she was always with her teammates so they could spend some time talking.

Jaune wasn't sure what happened when Weiss started to walk by with Pyrrha.

"Come along Jaune, we shouldn't be late," Weiss told him as she started up a conversation with Pyrrha.

Yang shrugged and grabbed Jaune by the arm. "Well, you heard her, let's get going."

Jaune was perplexed on just what happened, how did it go from just him and Weiss to the four of them so quickly? Well, it wasn't like it was a real date or anything, but he was hoping for some alone time with her to get to know her better.

~They will most likely split off once we get into the city~

'True, oh well, just one quick ride is all that it should take.' He figured.

Pyrrha was a little conflicted, she didn't mind the attention as Weiss asked her about her training and how life was in Mistral, she didn't mind telling her as Weiss was being polite enough about it. Although she did start to wish by the time, they took their seats in the Bullhead that she could have at least sat next to Jaune instead of across from him.

Yang also seemed to be sitting a little too close for some reason, but Pyrrha put it off as nothing. Jaune and Yang had slowly been becoming closer friends and she was Ruby's big sister so of course Pyrrha figured that that blonde girl was just getting to know her sister's friend more. At least that's what she believed a sister would do, as an only child she really had no real personal experience to go with it.

"So, you took those air sickness meds like last time, right?" Yang asked Jaune sitting next to him.

"Huh? Oh! Right, yeah totally took them," Jaune nearly forgot the excuse he had come up with for the fact that Valor was keeping his air sickness in control. He was so glad that he wouldn't sufferer from that again, the first time had been embarrassing enough as it was.

Yang felt perfectly fine sitting next to Jaune and since Weiss was busy talking Pyrrha's ear off she could enjoy her time with the other blonde. "So Jaune, nice threads, did you go behind my back and get someone else's help for fashion?"

"S-something like that, hope you don't mind," he really was starting to hate how more easily it was getting to lie.

"Naw, they had good taste," she looked him up and down. "You should wear that for clubbing."

"Never really been to a club," he admitted. "There aren't any in my area since it's not a large city I grew up in. There were places kids would hang out at." What he didn't say was that he was never in the popular crowd growing up so it wasn't like he was invited to many parties with kids his age.

Yang's eyes lit up a little. "Oh? Well, I found a couple that we can try out one night if you're up for it."

She wasn't sure if she was ever allowed back into Junior's place again after she trashed it. Maybe it's best she just avoids that place from now on just to be on the safe side. She doubted she would get friendly welcome back there anyway.

"So, you like clubbing?" Jaune asked her.

"It's a good way to have fun, plus I like the drinks but mostly the dancing." Yang shrugged. "I just love to dance the night away sometimes, just get lost in the music and enjoy life."

Jaune never knew that about Yang before, it was interesting to see a side of her he didn't get to see often. Looking over at Pyrrha and Weiss he couldn't help but ask a question. "What about you girls? You like to dance too?"

Weiss paused her conversation with Pyrrha to answer him. "I've gone to many balls and galls over the years, in fact my father insisted I learn how to dance growing up."

"I've never really gotten much spare time to," Pyrrha admitted as her life had been pretty busy before coming here. There were always training, interviews, commercials and then there was her regular schooling on top of all that. "I did enjoy it the few times I managed to."

One commercial she had to learn how to dance for it, she felt it was silly, but her manager assured her it would look great. She had to admit it did, but she still didn't get why they thought a couple dancing was good for a perfume ad. It wasn't even that good of a product as she had to test it out.

"Man, I should take you all out one night then," Yang leaned back. "Oh, maybe we can get everyone involved. I know Ruby needs to get out more and Blake just sits around all day reading. We're in the prime of our lives, we should be enjoying it."

"Maybe we are," Weiss countered. "Some of us might like to enjoy a quiet evening."

Yang waved it off, "Oh some on Ice Queen, when was the last time you did something fun? You never did anything impulsive or let loose?"

Weiss straightened up, "Some of us didn't have the choice." She said coldly remembering how strict her father was on all of them growing up.

Pyrrha felt she could relate to what Weiss just said, she had grown up in the shadow of her own success that it had been hard to really do what she wanted. She had so many expectations on her that she had to keep up that it was now almost second nature to just do what she thought was expected of her to do.

Yang looked at the two of them starting to see something she hadn't seen before. "Well then why not start now? What's stopping either of you of doing what you want now at Beacon?"

Weiss was about to say something like 'because father wouldn't approve' but unless she told him how would he know? She always felt like his shadow was there behind her, always watching and judging her actions. It was a hard thing to shake off and looking at her teammate across from her Weiss felt a small stab of jealously that she had obviously had the freedom she had been denied growing up, both her and her sister it seemed.

Without another word the announcement that they were landing soon struct them as the four of the felt the ship lower itself and then the last lurch as it hit the ground.

Of course now that they were here both Yang and Pyrrha wondered just how were they to keep an eye on Jaune and Weiss without coming across as obvious.

TBC…