A/N: Hello, and welcome back to a surprise third chapter for Love's First Rose. It's a surprise because I have other story chapters I was suppose to be writing in its stead. Also, it would've come out sooner, but there was a weird glitch on FF where I couldn't upload any new documents. That has been fixed now, I think/

Anyway, enjoy!

RWBY is owned by Viz Media and the late Monty Oum


Love's First Rose

Chapter 3

A few months before the events of Clout,

**Hack**

**Cough, cough,**

"Uurgh," Moaned the leader of Team RWBY before blowing her nose. Then she let out a devastated sigh before flopping back onto her bed in her dorm room, and stared aimlessly at the ceiling above her.

After a moment she frowned to herself as she grumbled and sighed, "This sucks. Heugh."

It was the day before their first semester break and she just had to catch a cold. Now, all she had to look forwards to was a stuffy nose, a lot of coughing and feeling miserable over the next week or so while everyone else got to enjoy themselves. At least, she'd be around her dad, she supposed, cause her team certainly weren't going to be there.

To double down on the misery, the members of her team, And JNPR, had been called away on various other things.

Weiss had had to attend a board meeting in Atlas with her brother, Whitley, and mother, Willow, as they went over the SDC's yearly earnings with their Board of Directors, the crooks. Meanwhile, Blake had been called away to perform some political jockeying at a diplomatic function with various heads of state from Mistral, Vale, Vacuo and even Atlas alongside her parents while it was being hosted in Menagerie, and Yang had come along with her as part of her retinue's bodyguards.

At least, she was being paid for it Ruby thought, scrunching up her face in a cute pout as she thought about that again.

As for JNPR, they had had to go off and do a last minute mission that had come in, from Argus, of all places. Jaune's sister and nephew being there, she wasn't surprised that he had jumped on the opportunity once he became aware of the fact.

Apparently, the original team had fallen through. Something about a licensing issue, or whatever. Then both Atlas and Haven had informed the local Guild leader that they didn't have any other teams available as the moment and so they would simply have to handle it on their own. The situation, being somewhat of an emergency, meant that the Guild had been forced to call around for help.

At they're getting paid for it, including all kinds of bonuses Ruby thought as she grumbled and sniffled to herself while bundling herself in her covers again.

She sighed again and mutter, "And, I had so many plans for this weekend. It was going to be so awesome. Stupid cold. Hate you. Bleurgh"

Before everything had gone wrong, that could go wrong, she and the rest of Pollination Knight were going to spend the weekend doing a kind of sub-a-thon thing, not that they needed it, they were the most subscribed channel on Beacon's Intranet, with an even larger following worldwide on the various CCTN websites. Still, they would've been playing video games together and doing challenges or punishments as the day called for it. It was supposed to be really fun, too, not just because they would be doing it with each other, but also with Jaune, the closest they could get to their crush without it being weird.

She thought about that for a moment as her cold and medicated -addled brain started to ramble on about just the weirdest things...

It was already weird, of course. Why wouldn't it be.

Four girls, who all knowingly had a crush on the same boy? Why wouldn't it be. The fact that they hadn't fallen into some sort of destructive infighting was a marvel of both how much they cared for each other, and for him.

The fact that no one else had bothered telling Jaune about it all was due to Nora being Nora, also Blake and Weiss, and no one messed with Nora when it came to her family. Of which, Jaune most definitely was, even before his family had legally adopted the two orphans from Mistral at his urging.

That was another weird dynamic now that Ruby thought about it. Nora treated Jaune as both an older and a younger brother, but she wasn't exactly sure where their relationship truly lied. And, she supposed, it didn't really matter in the end.

Family was family.

And, she was going to miss hers.

// //

"Take care of yourself, okay?" Jaune said as he stepped back after giving Yang a hug goodbye, and unknowingly making her day by doing so. He had already down the same for Blake and Weiss before they had left to go their own way.

She snorted at that before giving him one of her classic, devil-may-care grins as she said, "Please, Vomit-boy. You know me. I got this." Before dropping the façade to say with a worried look of her own, "You just take care of yourself, okay. That mission sounds like it could be more than a bit complicated."

"Yeah, you got it, Yang." He returned with a nod. Then, with a nervous rub to the back of his head, he asked, "So, Ruby's really sick?"

At her nod he mouthed audibly, "Damn." Before saying, "Well, that sucks. And, she had been planning for this weekend for so long, too." He paused in thought before shrugging to say, "Well, at least, she'll be with your dad, right?"

She winced at that before saying as he gave her a concerned look, "Well, about that. Turns out Dad also has a mission. One, that he was already on. In Vacuo."

"Shi- Shoot," Jaune managed to correct himself at the last minute. The two stood there in an awkward silence for a moment before he then said, "Well, at least... At least, It's only a cold, right?"

Yang winced again at that before saying as she brushed at her hair, "So, about that. Turns out its not just a cold, and Rubes is outside the window for treatment."

Jaune frowned at that and rubbed at his chin in thought, not liking the idea of his best friend being home alone already, but even more so with her also being sick. That made for a lousy weekend, let alone the mini vacation that they were all supposed to have. He glanced up at movement behind Yang, seeing a way out of this for Ruby. Or, perhaps a way to make it better for her. "Well, that sucks." He said instead of telling her what he was planning. "Here's hoping she feels better soon. Maybe you guys can be finished in time to pull something off together?"

Yang could only shrug in return.

They said their goodbyes once more as a Bullhead descended to take her away and Jaune was left to his own devices. Just what he wanted.

////

The next day,

Patch Island, Rose-Xiao Long household,

**Hack**

**Cough, cough,**

"Uurgh," Moaned the leader of Team RWBY before blowing her nose. Then she let out a devastated sigh before flopping back onto her bed in her room, and stared aimlessly at the ceiling above her.

After a moment she frowned to herself as she grumbled and sighed, "This still sucks. Heugh."

Finally, after a moment more of sulking while sniffling to herself, she did the only thing she could think of and pulled out her Scroll to watch something online. She was too sick to train or work on her baby, Crescent Rose, and only someone like Weiss would even think about doing the homework that Dr. Oobleck had given them. At least, on the First day of vacation.

She frowned as she saw all the people gathering before the next Stream for their channel. That was odd. Had she forgotten to take that down yesterday?

She sighed at that and grimaced at even the thought of telling all their fans that they wouldn't be having the Sub-a-thon before making to sign in, only to blink as she noticed that the video when from waiting, to now premiering.

"What?" She mouthed at that, staring at the vid. Finally, she shrugged, before making up her mind to watch... whatever this was, and clicked on the video. Ruby found herself staring in disbelief at the image before her.

On the screen was a video of Jaune, and the members of Team CRDL, and they were all at Beacon. Weren't they all supposed to be going home or on a mission right now? What was this? What was going on?

That's certainly what the long ling of chatters were asking right now.

She blinked and refocused her attention on the video as Jaune started speaking.

"-ey guys, and welcome back to Pollination Knight," Said the voice of Jaune Arc as behind him came a chorus of greeting from the members of Team CRDL. He scratched at his head after glancing at the four men behind him before saying, "Sorry to say that there's kind of been a bit of a change to plan for the weekend. We still got plenty of games and punishments that we'll be doing all weekend long, but unfortunately the rest of the team couldn't make it due to some last minute issues on my part."

-What was he talking about? She was the one who messed up, got sick. She shook her head and focused again as he kept going on.-

"Anyway, turns out that our favorite cape-wearing member got sick before we could do this," He said while still scratching at his head with that nervous, embarrassed grin of his. "So, I thought, why not do something to make her feel better? Which is where me and the boys come in. Dove, hit it."

Ruby watched in confusion as the brown-haired, pudgy member of CRDL then turned on a nearby stereo while Jaune picked up his guitar. With a quick strum of the instrument to make certain all the strings were in tune, Jaune paused, waiting for a moment in the background melody to start with many members of the chat either saying this was going to be good or already showing various LMAO Emotes. Then, with a sudden flurry of strumming, he sang loudly and purposely off-key, "~RRRRUUUUBBBYYYYYY! I WROTE THIS SONG, FOR YOU! I HOPE YOU'RE DOING WEEEE-EEEEELL! AND, I'LL SSSEEEE, YYYOOOUUU, SSOOONNN!~!"

Ruby burst out into a giggling, cackling mess at the stupid song, collapsing back on her bed as her cackling increased at the wink Jaune then gave the camera with what he thought was a charming smile. The line of chat exploded in a show of LMAOs and other laughing Emotes.

Just as Ruby recovered from the laughing fit, wiping at the tears at the corner of her eyes, Jaune motioned to Dove to shut off the music before handing the guitar to Cardin as he said, "So, that's the best I could do at such a short notice. Still, though, I mean it. Let's all wish the Rapping Reaper a 'Get Well Soon', eh?"

-The chat immediate sent a flood of well wishes at that.-

Jaune nodded at that before smiling as he said, "To that end, I'll be doing my best on my part with the Sub-a-thon. CRDL and a few of our other friends here at Beacon decided to help out once they heard the news." He stroked at his chin as he said, "I believe the plan was to get us up 10,000 followers on the CCT net, but we're already at OVER 9,000! *Cough* So, we'll need to higher! We need to go bigger! I'm talking 20,000 Followers on the CCT net! More! We need all the followers! To help Ruby recover faster!"

-"Jaune!" Ruby suddenly whined loudly at the Scroll in embarrassed indignation as if he could hear her. "You didn't have to do that!"-

He looked up at the camera, a gleam in his deep blue eyes! "To that end, me and boys here will be going all weekend long! I'm talking games! I'm talking contests! I'm talking punishments and prizes! I'm talking Sky being plastered in the face with a cream pie!" At the last, he pointed at the blue-haired man as he was standing there looking bored behind him.

"Wait! What?!" Sky asked as he perked up at that and began to look around in confused terror, only to immediately be smacked full in the face. "OOooohhh." Was all he said in reply to that as the towering figure of Yatsuhashi Daichi then turned and gave a thumbs up to the camera with a faint smile of his own. Not one saw it when he appeared, but the amusement was clear to everyone watching the chat scroll upwards.

"Yeah," Jaune then said with a big grin on his face as he also gave a thumbs up to the camera. "Let's do this!"

From there Ruby watched over the next several hours as her friend led the group of boys in a variety of games, puzzles and punishments. She laughed, she cried, and most of all she smiled just as Jaune wanted her to, even though he couldn't see it.

It would appear that her weekend wouldn't be as lonely as she thought.


A/N: And, that'll be that. For now. This one's a two parter. Though, next chapter will probably the second part of the HolyBun's Date. Till then, take care and good night.

Essiter out!