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Chapter Text

Jaune Arc was absolutely capable of being very nice and is not entirely oblivious, thank you very much.

That fact showed itself, amongst other things, in him deciding that he really wanted to do something nice for Pyrrha. It had been almost two weeks since the Forever Fall Fiasco, as he’d been referring to it, and they’d been steadily growing closer over that time.

And okay, yeah, the responsibility for literally all of the remaining tension between them lay firmly on Jaune’s shoulders. Several layers of broken trust and then abandoning your team would do that.

But that didn’t mean that they didn’t care about each other, like, a whole lot. Because Jaune had grown to trust Pyrrha more than he thought he could ever trust anyone, both during and outside their training sessions. 

Half of his plans counted on Pyrrha’s back up now, knowing that his blind spots were covered and his ridiculous ideas were understood. That there would be no hit uncountered, and she would catch him when he fell. Which he did, often.

And he knew, or at least really hoped , from a thousand little fragments of evidence, that Pyrrha cared about him the same way.

But just training and studying together, exchanging notes and stupid jokes alike… it just didn’t feel like enough of an expression for that big tangle of feelings growing in Jaune’s chest. These thoughts about how he’d die for Pyrrha without question, but it was fine because she’d do the same.

It was terrifying and a little too big and sometimes it took his breath away, but it also felt right . Like those feelings were really his and he didn’t want them gone. Like there was never a doubt that one day he’d arrive in this moment, standing there feeling like this.

He thinks he’d call it love.

And so he decided, not without his usual humor and awkwardness and everything else in between, that he needed to do something special for his partner.

Unfortunately, he had absolutely no idea what that something special was supposed to be.

“WEISS WEISS WEISS! Oh hey Ren! WEISS!!!”

Weiss was just trying to study in peace, because this was a school after all, even if it felt sometimes like it was only Ren, Pyrrha, and herself who remembered this. That was when Jaune burst into the common area being his very loud and hyper and all in all near overwhelming self.

She had to try really hard to hide just how amused she was, because Jaune didn’t deserve the satisfaction of knowing that right away. But whatever had him screaming for her attention with such urgency should be either hilarious, disastrous or, most likely, both .

She made a questioning noise without looking up from her books. Silently begging Ren to field whatever issue Jaune had deemed so important.

“Weiss!” Jaune yelled again, like he wasn’t clear enough on that part the first twenty times. “I need your help.”

He leaned in very close to Weiss’s face, his eyes wide. Anyone else would probably already be intimated to hell by this giant idiot with his lack of volume control.

Weiss, however, was far from being just anyone .

Weiss, to her absolute credit, didn’t even flinch as she stared him down coldly, like Jaune wasn’t twice her size in wiry muscle alone. “I’m not placating Yang for you again. Whatever she’s threatening you over, you probably deserve it.”

Jaune looked very confused for a second and finally drew back an inch or two, so Weiss guessed that maybe trying to escape Yang’s wrath wasn’t it this time. Then his expression shifted to downright offended .

He was so easy to read. Face like an open book, that one.

“It’s not anything like that! I need your, you and Ren’s help!” he said in a deeply affronted tone, waving his hands empathetically in the air as if that would help him illustrate his point better.

Weiss couldn’t help but go for a well-directed jab through the obvious opening in Jaune’s usual blustering. “So you need help with things that won’t end with you being thrown into the harbor, for example?”

Okay, first of all, rude. That was one time, okay, when Nora had the genius albeit dangerous idea to put glitter into Yang’s shampoo. No matter how much Jaune tried to stop her, and later, how much he tried to explain to Yang that it was Nora’s idea, it was no use.

Jaune ended up, one way or another, being punted into the very, very cold and unpleasant water in Vale harbor, screaming maybe an octave higher than he’d like to admit. Yang had stood on the shore, her hair glittering from the shampoo and from her rage, feeling no doubt disgustingly happy with herself all while spewing insults at him as he’d spluttered.

Pyrrha, who’d been hovering amusedly and concernedly around the entire affair, helped Jaune back out of the water and then ushered him back to the academy. 

Upon their return they’d shared a cup of cocoa, she’d wrapped him tightly in the warmest fluffiest blanket she could find, and she had softened her advice to probably not do that again with a kiss on the forehead. Jaune had suddenly found it much easier to stop whining about his definitely impending death via hypothermia.

So Jaune was about to object and clear all of Weiss’s delusions on exactly how likely he was to go for an impromptu swim no thanks to a certain brawler, not naming any names, when he realised that maybe that was a fight for another day.

He came here because he needed help, and he needed it now . “Not the point! I need you guys’ help!”

Weiss didn’t seem impressed, and even went so far as to push him away from her face. “You already said that.” 

From across the table, Ren gave her a look as he closed his own books, and she groaned as she finally gave in and accepted that she wasn’t going to get any more work done while Jaune was having his current crisis very loudly in her direct vicinity. “Fine. What is it?”

“I wanna do something nice for Pyrrha. Like get her a gift or something. I just don’t know what,” he said, finally, as he flopped down into the only unoccupied chair at the table, which creaked unappreciatively under the sudden weight.

Jaune threw his arms across the table and dramatically laid his head on them, all long limbs and hyperactivity and not an ounce of grace. Weiss thought he looked like a child who’d never really grown into his new body after a growth spurt. Like suddenly all his limbs were several inches longer than he knew what to do with.

She tugged her books out from under his arms and glared at him, but somewhere in the back of her mind she was glad she wasn’t having to play mediator in some petty fight. Ren looked over from the neat stack of textbooks and papers he was making. “That’s very vague, you know.”

Jaune squinted at him like he’d just said something insulting. “Thanks, man.”

Ren huffed out a small laugh. “Do you have any ideas? A point to start from.”

Jaune whined and slumped upright, a hint of theatrics slipping into his mannerisms. “That’s just it, I don’t know!” His voice slipped back into his normal tones, and this time he stayed upright, which Weiss was supremely grateful for.  

“Y’know the kind of sappy little gestures that she pulls a million bajillion times all the time, because she’s just like that? Like, ya know, getting Ruby flowers even though it wasn’t her birthday or anything?” He waved his hand in the air to illustrate his point. Or something, anyway. “I wanna do something like that, but for her!”

“Well, get her flowers then.”

Chapter Text

“Well, get her flowers then.”

Weiss said that like it was the most obvious course of action and an easy solution to Jaune’s very serious problem. Jaune was absolutely baffled and honestly a little offended by how not seriously he was being taken. He glanced at Ren for support, but his teammate was just nodding his head in agreement. Thanks man.

“But… but they’re just flowers!”

Ren laughed again, and now Jaune was really starting to wonder if he was being made fun of. “And? Jaune, wouldn’t you be happy if someone bought you flowers?”

What did that have to do with anything?

“I mean, yeah I would,” he shrugged. No one had ever bought him flowers before. “But I’m a guy?”

“That’s not the point, you dolt,” Weiss rolled her eyes, but hey, at least they were getting somewhere. And the sooner they solved this problem for the idiot, the sooner she could get back to her work. “He’s saying that everyone would be happy to receive flowers, unless they really didn’t like flowers, I suppose.”

“But,” Ren interjected, as Jaune’s face began to fall, “I know for a fact that Pyrrha likes flowers.”

They watched with satisfaction as the new, very important bit of information hit Jaune and he lit up, a grin as bright as the sun splitting his face. He jumped up from the chair, the chair’s legs slamming against the floorboards before it fell over.

Jaune didn’t even care, already back to usual exuberant ways. “Holy crap, Ren! Weiss! You guys are freaking geniuses , thank you-” He stopped. “Wait.”

Weiss held back the urge to groan, but only barely. “What now?”

The knight looked about as lost as he did when Nora had decided to prank him by only speaking in code for a whole day. “Where do I get flowers?”

Okay, she had to admit, that was a very valid concern. Beacon Academy was large and sprawling, but most of it was covered by buildings and training areas and pavement. Even where there was greenery, it was just trees and well trimmed pristine lawn.

No flower beds, and definitely no place to go picking wildflowers. And honestly, even if there were any flower beds present, she couldn’t imagine Goodwitch being all too pleased about Jaune’s intentions of looting them.

But Weiss just smiled, and it was a particular kind of smile that Jaune would never have expected out of her back when they first met, but by now he was very familiar with it. It was a smile that looked innocent enough at first glance, but only until you noticed the conspiratory glint in her eyes.

It was a look forged from being the heiress to the most powerful company on the planet, but still spending most of your days wrangling your idiot teammates into line.

“I don’t know, and clearly Ren doesn’t either. But if you don’t tell me, I at least won’t be the one getting into trouble for it if you get caught.”

The message of that was actually crystal clear to Jaune, because he was not an idiot , thank you very much, especially when it came to reading people and especially especially not when it came to reading his friend’s treasured moments of mischief.

And the message was: Not on campus. However you get into Vale to get flowers is up to you now.

Jaune looked positively ecstatic as he stood for another moment, bouncing on his heels. “Okay, great, thank you! You’re the best!” he exclaimed in a rush, and the next moment he was already moving again, running towards the hallway before either Ren or Weiss could say anything.

But then he apparently changed his mind just as abruptly again. He grabbed onto the door frame as he sped past and almost flung himself into the wall with the redirected momentum. “Wait! Actually, do either of you know what her favourite flower is?”

Now that was an opportunity if Weiss had ever seen one. Ren started to open his mouth to give the answer, but Weiss cut him off. No way was she letting this slip past her. “What do we get in exchange if he tells you?”

Jaune’s face fell dramatically. He glared despondently at Ren.  “Oh come on! Please , Weiss!”

Less whining would be part of the deal, hopefully.

“I’m listening,” she said in a fake-innocent voice once Jaune’s loud, drawn whine of her name finally died out.

Jaune dropped his forehead against the doorframe dramatically, then banged his head against it once with an amusing sort of gentleness before speaking. “Okay, fine,” he finally looked at Weiss again.

Looking determined, which was honestly quite comical considering the circumstances, flower talk and dramatic assault of door frames and everything. “You drive a hard bargain, but I need the info.”

Ren chuckled at that. Betrayed, by those he trusted most. Thanks Ren.

“I’ll leave you guys alone when you’re studying for, uhh… a whole week,” Jaune offered. “Staring whenever I actually get the flowers, because I don’t need Pyrrha picking up on the surprise. Deal?”

It was more than Weiss could have hoped for. She nodded, properly grinning this time, and Jaune’s smile in response mimicked her own. “Deal,” and she didn’t even bother having Jaune shake on it. An Arc always keeps his promises.

Jaune turned expectantly to Ren. “It’s lilies. Red ones,” he said, smiling softly at his team leader.

Jaune’s face scrunched up in an exaggerated grimace, like he was dedicating an incredible amount of effort to committing that information to memory. Weiss rolled her eyes fondly at the display and was already reopening her books when Jaune said, “Got it.” 

And then he was back to yelling excitedly again, because he almost always was. “Okay! Thank you guys, so much ! Bye!” And this time he really was out of the room before Ren could respond, already running down the corridor to gods knew where and from the sound of it, colliding with Blake halfway down the hallway.

Ren smiled to himself, silently wished Jaune good luck, and went back to his books.

Chapter Text

Oh gods, Jaune was going to be in detention for the rest of his life. He was gonna be forced to organize Oobleck’s horrible filing cabinets over and over again for the next forever . 

By the time he’d be done, the Vytal Festival will have arrived and Goodwitch will just tell his team that they have to wait now, because he can’t go out and have fun until he’s written “I will not be an idiot” or something into a notebook a thousand times.

But honestly, screw it, this was so worth any punishment she could dish out.

He was hiding on the mailship heading from Vale to the academy, with the first suggestions of dawn light emerging on the horizon. The sky there was a weird, diluted shade of green he’d never quite believe belonged there, despite it being between blue and orange. 

Jaune was trying to make himself look small and fade into the shadows in case the captain were to look right at his hiding spot and see him and probably yell at him for hitching a ride back on his mailship. Because this was probably against the rules, right? No way was this okay. So hiding it was.

This was made difficult by him having to fold his awkwardly long limbs into a very small space, and he was certain his elbows kept poking out.

And he also felt so freaking giddy , because he had a big bouquet of lilies clutched to his chest, bought from a flower shop in town. Thank the gods they opened so early. 

Jaune didn’t even care that the stems were dripping on his arms as he held onto them, because he was so happy and excited , and he can’t wait to give them to Pyrrha.

The ship shuddered as it landed, and the doors creaked open. As soon as they were wide enough to squeeze himself out, he ducked under the still lifting door, and then he just ran for it.

He had no idea how he wasn’t busted at that moment. An awkwardly tall spindly person dashing across the lawn at the first light of dawn. Bright red flowers, and shiny white armor and everything.

But somehow he made it ashore safe, and he didn’t stop running, ducking into the familiar shade of buildings and forever fall trees that should hide him from any prying eyes.

The first truly golden lights of dawn filtered through the windows, painting patterns across the opposite wall as Jaune made his way down the corridor headed towards the dorms. 

He was so caught up amongst the thoughts swirling in his head, his excitement and newfound nerves, that he almost walked right past his team’s room, and he skidded to a halt clumsily when he realised where he was.

He tucked the bouquet behind his back, and reached to open the door with his free hand, fighting with all his might to push down the butterflies in his stomach. But just before he opened the door, he realised something.

Oh.

Right .

Just because he was wide awake and already on his feet, it was still just after dawn and he honestly had no idea what time it was. Jaune, for his part, has not slept a wink, actually, thanks to his romantic adventures.

Pyrrha was quite the early riser, even on the weekends, really the up-and-at-em type, but even she might still be sleeping. Nora definitely was, and it was probably only his hesitation that had kept him from getting clubbed around the head with a stray pillow.

But when he pressed his ear close to the door, he was relieved to hear signs of life from the other side already. Faint footsteps and then the creak of the closet door as it opened and closed.

Jaune had discovered that creak during the first week, and then proceeded to relentlessly annoy them all with it until Nora tried to smother him with a pillow. He was only saved by Ren, chiming in that the school really should have fixed that creak by now.

Jaune had still gotten a face fill of pillow though when he reached for the closet door again.

That was enough proof that Pyrrha was up already though, and so he knocked.

“Who is it?” came the immediate response, quiet because it was so early, but unmistakably Pyrrha.

“It’s me, can I come in?” he asked, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet.

Years of living with a multitude of sisters had carved away any bedroom boundaries he’d once had. Living at Beacon had forced him to relearn them.

And his teammates had learned in turn not to come bursting in unannounced, especially not when any of them, but especially he, might be changing, unless they wanted to be yelled at and then avoided in a panic for the rest of the day.

Later, much later, he’d mustered up the strength to sit them all down and tell them why he hated being walked in on while dressing, but that was all in the past.

“Yes, come in,” came the response, Pyrrha’s voice sounding much more alert than before.

He slipped inside, closing the door behind himself because he wasn’t an idiot , careful to keep his hand with the flowers out of sight the whole time. He was certain that didn’t make him look at all like he was up to something. Nope. Not even a little bit.

And, well, he was up to something, to be honest, so if Pyrrha were to get suspicious, she’d have every right to do so.

Chapter Text

Inside, Pyrrha was standing with her circlet in her hand that she had no doubt been in the process of putting on when she got distracted, and now she was looking at Jaune with...worry? 

Jaune, however, got distracted for a moment by the simple fact that Pyrrha’s hair is, in fact, down. Not up in her ponytail.  But in his defence, it was entirely for sentimental reasons. 

In reality, the distracting thing about it was that Jaune knew how much trust it took from Pyrrha to be able to drop her Invincible Girl persona in front of someone, and it made his chest swell with something warm and giddy. Not at all unlike when he’d been sitting on the boat heading back to the island and thinking about giving Pyrrha the flowers.

“Is everything alright?” Pyrrha said, unknowingly interrupting his thoughts. “You’re not usually up this early.”

Damn right he’s not, early birds and morning culture are a plague upon this world and Jaune did not sign up for their horrible propaganda, regardless of how much good hot shower water they tried to bribe him with.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine! Nothing to worry about here!” he grins and okay, crap, why was he so nervous now? Why was it so hard to just act normal and casual, it was just flowers. Pyrrha had probably been given a million gifts over the years.

He tried really hard not to think about this exact scenario actually happening with dozens of faceless strangers, because he hated how twisted up his stomach got when he imagined that. 

His confidence will not be bested by the Invincible Girl, even if said Invincible Girl was very, very pretty and still looked kinda concerned for him and oh fuck. 

And now Ren was waking up, because of course he was. One glance at the situation and his teammate just nodded approvingly and Jaune glared as subtly at him as he could manage.

Which is to say, not subtly at all.

That concern slowly melted from Pyrrha's face, but it was replaced by some half-fond, half-exasperated look Jaune was all too familiar with by now. Not that he minded. It made him warm and fuzzy and all that stuff to know that she cared that much

“Jaune, what did you do…this…time?” she asks, but somewhere in the middle her voice slowed and her stare moved from Jaune’s face to somewhere above his shoulder, and now she just looked confused.

Only now does Jaune realise that maybe the flowers were a little too long to easily hide behind one’s back, even if one was a very large person like himself.

“Nothing! Nothing bad!” He tried to cover it up anyway, because he refused to be tripped by his own bad planning. “I just…brought you something,” Jaune said, hopefully casually, shrugging sheepishly. 

And before Pyrrha could catch on to what he was doing or what Ren was smirking about or scold him or whatever, he pulled the flowers forward and held them out towards her.

Pyrrha's gaze immediately dropped to the flowers and she looked wide-eyed and honestly pretty shocked. She took the bouquet automatically and just stared at the flowers, one hand still holding her now long-forgotten circlet, as she laid the long bouquet along her arm gently and with obviously more practised movements than Jaune ever could.

And then she looked back up at Jaune with this very, very soft smile, looking kind of dazed, and it did so many things to Jaune’s heart. He didn’t really know what to do with himself in turn, so he just shifted nervously from foot to foot, his hands tugging at his sleeves now that they were entirely unoccupied and refused to stay still, as usual. He just wished Pyrrha would say something already.

And then she finally did.

“Thank you.” And it was just two simple words, but they came out so soft and Pyrrha looked so happy and gods, Jaune felt so warm and happy too that he felt like he was going to burst, because all he could think about was that he was the reason Pyrrha looked like that now.

He also didn’t know how to respond to that, so he just rubbed at the back of his head, his other hand still assaulting his sleeves-

-Oh gods, he was going to pull the poor thing apart, Sapphron was going to kill him-

And he stared at the ground, because staring at Pyrrha for too long was kind of like looking at the sun. Warm and bright and beautiful but something you shouldn’t do for too long, because it was not a sight meant for mere mortal eyes and all that.

Pyrrha laughed, quiet because it was still early morning and the less said about waking Nora up early the better, but somehow it was more fitting than if it was loud. The sound fit perfectly with the warm, golden lighting from the window and the too-early hours and all these warm feelings coiling inside of Jaune’s chest.

“Come here, Jaune,” Pyrrha said, her voice so unbelievably fond, as she stepped closer and reached out with the hand that wasn’t holding the flowers and her circlet. She pulled Jaune in by the back of his head until she could kiss his forehead and linger there for a moment.

Jaune melted into her touch without hesitation and shuffled as close as he dared with the flowers still on Pyrrha's arm. She pressed their foreheads together, just letting the moment hang in the dawn-golden air.

And just that much? Just that much was perfect , because when she opened her eyes she saw Jaune already looking at her, his eyes bright. And she was just so, so happy, and she knew that Jaune was too.

Chapter Text

Pyrrha didn't get to ask Jaune where he got the flowers from or how he knew which ones were her favourite or even just why, because she still needed to finish getting dressed and scramble to find a place to put the flowers.

After all, it wasn’t like they just had vases lying around in the room, especially ones big enough to not topple over if you stuck a bunch of unreasonably large lilies into them.

And then they had to go meet team RWBY for breakfast, where they had to act normal and not talk about various flower-related things, no matter how much they would probably suck at it.

Jaune was the complete opposite of subtle in any situation, and he was being even less so than normal with how giddy and bouncy he was being. By the end of breakfast, Pyrrha is pretty sure that Yang is onto them, just about everything in general.

She did end up getting a proper vase, later in the day, Nora managed to convince her that Professor Peach wouldn’t miss one lousy vase , but that was a whole other adventure. One that involved more digging through greenhouses and getting dirt in her hair than Pyrrha would ever like to admit.

It also involved much more sprinting out of the storeroom with Nora cackling madly at her heels than she would ever admit.

After breakfast and a quick trip back to the room to fetch her books, Pyrrha did intend to question Jaune over their normal study session. Searching the normal locations to see where she’d have to drag him from to the library, she just about glimpsed Jaune slip quietly into the common room.

For once avoiding attention as much as one could being over six feet tall and usually very loud. Pyrrha, of course, followed him.

And in the common room she found the delightful sight of Jaune pouting, sitting next to a studying Weiss and reading silently.

“What’s this, Jaune?” Pyrrha smiled, and Jaune pulled his head down between his shoulders without looking at her. “How come you’re so quiet? Is everything okay?”

In response, Jaune just mumbled something that sounds suspiciously like “I’m fine,” while Weiss turned her head to smirk back at Pyrrha over her shoulder, looking proud of herself. 

Whatever Pyrrha had just walked into, she knew it was worth the detour.

“He owes me one,” Weiss informed simply, but her smirk was still very much present.

Pyrrha is smart, and more important she knew these two. She knew how Jaune felt things with his entire being but had great difficulty with conclusions regarding the heart. She also knew how Weiss had the useful skill of cutting through her friend’s tangled messes of emotions to draw a straight line from idea to resolution.

And so it didn't take her long to connect the dots between Jaune’s romantic surprise gift this morning, and whatever he owed Weiss for. 

And once it clicked she smiled softly, and hummed thoughtfully under her breath..

Jaune noticeably put his head down even more and pretended really hard that he was somewhere else.

Pyrrha, instead, walked over to Weiss and hugged her from behind, squeezing carefully, because if she interrupted the heiress’ studying, no amount of apologizing would ever make up for it. 

Weiss glanced up at Jaune very deliberately reading quietly, and even she knew how hard it was for him to sit quietly for more than a few minutes at a time. The heiress nodded and leaned back into Pyrrha slightly, that much being the most amount of physical affection she could muster up for the moment.

“Thank you,” Pyrrha whispered into the snow white hair, smiling as her head rested on Weiss’s shoulder for a moment. 

Because even if the flowers had been from Jaune, she knows full well that he must’ve gotten help from Weiss with them, and she appreciated her helping from behind the scenes, even if it’s far from subtle. 

Had Pyrrha really really been so obvious with her affections for the bumbling knight that even Weiss felt the need to step in?

Then she let go, hesitated for a moment that stretched for an unknown amount of time, and then leaned over briefly to press a kiss into Jaune’s hair.

It was so easy to do now that he had his head down, sitting half curled up in the armchair pretending he was much smaller and much more difficult to spot than he really was. Because this thank-you was meant for both of them, even if it made butterflies flutter in her stomach at even doing this much.

Then she left with just a simple goodbye, hoping she was able to keep the blush from her face, and another mouthed thank you at Weiss who just waved her away. As much as she’d been blushing at pressing a kiss into Jaune’s already sun-kissed curls, it was nothing to the flush spreading across the knight’s cheeks.

She figured she should give Jaune a break, because his face was looking almost worryingly red, and it would be a shame if he had a heart attack over something as simple as a few flowers.

Red as her hair. She’d left by this time, intending to find Ren for studying, but it took nearly fifteen minutes for Jaune to stop grinning giddily and focus enough on his comic for the words to not float off the page.

Weiss just rolled her eyes fondly and mumbled something about “lovestruck idiots” that Jaune was too distracted to hear.

Chapter Text

Jaune snuck out again one night, just past midnight when he was sure everyone was already dutifully asleep. He was planning to steal one of the airships left on the landing strip, or even just climb down the cliffside and row across in a rowboat if that didn’t work out.

Because he honestly had no idea how to drive an airship. He barely knew how to hotwire one. It couldn’t be that different than the tractors back on his family’s farm, could? 

And then he was going to head to Vale again and just wait it out until the flower shop opens in the early morning. Because he wanted to buy Pyrrha flowers again.

Not even because he was hoping for anything in return or because it landed him special treatment or anything. And it admittedly was dangerous, very much so, because Goodwitch would have his head if she found out. 

And yet he found himself only mildly surprised by the complete lack of selfishness behind his actions. Receiving flowers just seemed to make Pyrrha so happy, amidst the gruelling training sessions and the pressure he knew she felt about always having to be the best no matter the cost to herself.

Pressure that was only rising with the Vytal Festival and Tournament inching closer. So many outside eyes watching to see if the Invincible Girl would finally show a crack in her shell. Expecting the most from her, without giving any care to her thoughts in return.

But the flowers… He’d seen how much they’d meant to her.

And Jaune just wanted to do everything in his power to make her that happy as much as he could.

The first time got him some teasing from Nora and Yang, yeah, and he felt like he’d never live it down. But that didn’t change the fact that Pyrrha had just seemed so happy and content because of the gesture. She’d looked at him with so much love and hadn’t looked away immediately when Jaune caught her eye.

They’d spent a long time staying up and talking in the room that night, about anything at all that they felt like talking about. Jaune with his head eventually ending up in Pyrrha's lap, Pyrrha's hands in his hair. Twisting the unruly strands into little braids.

And every time Pyrrha had looked at the lilies standing in their tall vase on the windowsill, she’d grown a little more quiet and smiled to herself, losing track of the conversation for a little while.

Jaune hadn’t minded at all.

Eventually, the only thing that stopped him from hijacking an airship was his own complete lack of hijacking skills. And Goodwitch nearly catching him. But he prefered to say that it was the first thing, and not that Goodwitch quite simply scared the living daylights out of him

The second time ended up actually being on this lovely, clear Thursday morning when the two teams took a trip down into Vale. On a school sanctioned trip.

The last few weekends they hadn’t been able to leave campus, what with training and classes, and preparing for the Festival and the dance that went along with it. But, much to their surprise, Goodwitch had pointed out that breaks were an important part of every routine.

Oobleck had immediately chimed in that a change of scenery was a good treat for the mind. After all, no warrior could be at their best without a healthy mind.

Jaune took off towards the flower shop again immediately once Goodwitch announced that they would all get half an hour of free time before they should meet back at the docks. He ignored the pang of guilt in his gut at just how disappointed Pyrrha had looked, being ditched so quickly.

He returned with a whole eleven minutes to spare, and a package wrapped in thin, plain paper cradled carefully in his arms. Sirens wailed in the far distance, no doubt from team RWBY’s normal shenanigans, and he found Pyrrha sitting on the pier alone, legs dangling above the water as she stared down into it. 

The perfect opportunity to give her the gift, he decided.

Jaune had originally planned to hold onto it until they were all back on campus and he could get a moment alone with Pyrrha before their schooling kicked off again. Because there’s no way he was going to embarassass himself in front of Goodwitch any more than he already had. 

And giving Pyrrha flowers where Yang Xiao Long could see was just a recipe for disaster.

But Pyrrha's face lit up when he sat down next to her and handed her the package and she opened it, revealing a potted hyacinth. Jaune knew nothing in hell about flowers, but he thought it was pretty and smelled nice, and he had his fingers crossed that Pyrrha liked purple. 

The soft laugh as she held the pot steadily in her hands and said, in a voice so warm and so fond Jaune felt like he could melt from it, “So this is where you ran off to, huh?” it made him feel like maybe even the embarrassment would’ve been worth it, just to see Pyrrha so happy.

The hyacinth lived on their windowsill now, with a cup she took from the kitchen sitting next to it, so that she could water it easily. Jaune’s heart still skipped a beat every time he entered the room and saw it there.

It was like a constant, simple reminder, that somehow, he was a part of Pyrrha's life now just like she was in Jaune’s. Something irrevocable yet mundane, something Pyrrha wanted to keep there for now and maybe forever too, because she didn’t want to think about being without it anymore.

Chapter Text

The third time didn’t even require Jaune to leave the campus.

He and Pyrrha were sitting together just outside of the main hall, taking a break from dancing for the first time all night. She looked absolutely breathtakingly stunning. And she’d laughed, and she’d taken his hand, and they’d danced.  

And meanwhile he looked…

Well he’d kept his promise, hadn’t he? She was happy, and that was all he needed in the world

They were just sitting together under the star-strewn sky, on the dusty, cracked pavement, with the friendly chatter of their friends and music issuing from the open doors behind them.

Jaune’s hands, as usual, couldn’t stay still for long, and after he grew bored with scratching patterns against the concrete with a broken pebble, his attention drifted away from Pyrrha.

It wasn’t his fault, he’d tried to pay attention, he really had. But he’d gotten so caught up in watching her tell the story that by the time he realized what was going on, he’d completely lost track of the conversation.

It didn’t help that once Jaune realized he wasn’t listening properly, he ended up spending most of his focus on focusing. And he still wasn’t listening to what she was saying in the slightest.

The breeze that kept catching in her hair wasn’t helping either. It rustled it, making it flow like the water, and he was transfixed in watching it. Another gust of wind made the sudden movement of something in the corner of his eye catch his attention.

There were daisies sprouting from the cracks just half an arm's reach away.

On a whim he decided to pick a few of them, and without thinking he reached over to try sticking them behind Pyrrha’s circlet while she was hopefully distracted by telling some story Jaune had long lost track of by then.

Pyrrha reflexively slapped his hand away, and then apologized endlessly when she realized what she’d done.

After reassuring her that it was fine, she ended up letting Jaune stick the flowers in her hair anyway. He wound them behind her circlet, and hoped they’d stay put at least for a little while.

Who needed dancing when she was looking at him like that?

And, well, Jaune knew that the third time was the charm and all that, but that didn’t mean he had to just stop now, right? Not when he just wanted to make Pyrrha happy, not when they’ve only for a little more than a week left of the semester.

Not when with each day spent in classes and each night spent training they all only get more and more tense preparing for the Festival.

Stupid Festival. It was supposed to be relaxing. And it was! They were all so excited for it, so why did it insist on being so stressful? 

Pyrrha was being forced onto her pedestal more and more every day, and he could see the toll it was taking on her. So he knew that he had to do something , he couldn’t just sit by when there was something he could do to take her mind off of the oncoming tournament.

Plus he had a different idea now anyway, a new plan, because he was a genius like that.

And he knew, he knew that he should be resting as much as he could at night. Because the greatest test of his horrible abilities was close by now, and he was going to need every second of rest and practice he could get.

But he’d never been one to make responsible decisions when the other option was to make someone happy. Even, and sometimes especially, if it was at his own expense.

So he definitely wasn’t going to start now.

In the end, he didn’t even end up making it to the docks.

He was busy keeping his footsteps light and silent over the pavement, dancing around the silver patches of moonlight that would no doubt reveal him to anyone watching, when a quiet cough from somewhere behind interrupts him.

Jaune almost jumped out of his skin from how badly he startled, but when he whipped around his senses were sharp looking for the tell-tale red glow of Grimm eyes. Unconsciously, even without his sword, his stance was proper. Ready to fight.

Pyrrha would be proud.

But the expected fight never came, because the one that emerged from the deepest shadows that Jaune had just passed a moment ago was none other than Professor Ozpin.

He only relaxed for a moment before he realized that oh crap , this was maybe even worse than getting his ass kicked by a soulless monster in the middle of the night. Actually, screw that, this was definitely worse.

“Would you mind telling me what you’re doing out here at such a late hour, Mr. Arc?”

Oh crap .

Chapter Text

Jaune tried really, really hard to pretend that he was not quaking in his sneakers standing in front of the Headmaster. But gods damn it’s hard , because Professor Ozpin was mysterious and terrifying on any day, and he especially was now that Jaune was caught red-handed.

Well, pink-handed at worst. Because technically he wasn’t going anything wrong just walking around the school at night. But he knew that the Headmaster would never be fooled by whatever excuse he came up with.

Damn him and his stupid somehow all-knowingness.

“I, uhh, I’m…” he stammered, because it was hard to be a smooth liar in a situation like this, when he was pretty sure he must’ve forgotten the little charisma he had under his pillow or something.

The worst part was that Professor Ozpin didn’t even look angry, he didn’t look anything . His expression was completely neutral and he was waiting patiently as Jaune only dug himself deeper into his own pit of doom. Just standing there completely expressionless with a mug of who knew what in his hand.

And somehow that was even worse than if he was visibly disappointed or angry. “Just a, uhh, pleasant midnight stroll, y’know?” he tried, hating how his voice squeaked from anxiety.

“A midnight stroll on the streets of Vale, you mean?”

Jaune made a strangled noise at that, because oh fuck, he definitely wasn’t getting out of this in one piece no. And there was something that sparked up in Professor Ozpin’s eyes at that, but it was gone too quickly for Jaune to interpret it.

“I’ll let it slide for this one.”

Oh.

It’s amusement.

It was definitely amusement, the same kind that was becoming very obvious in the Headmaster’s voice right now. Jaune wasn’t sure if that meant things were better or worse than he’d thought, until the meaning of what the Headmaster was saying finally reached his brain.

“But I suggest you hurry back to bed immediately. I know that Professor Goodwitch,” and thank the gods that Professor Ozpin overlooked Jaune’s full-body flinch at the mention of the other teacher, “is running into town tomorrow on some errands.” 

With a twinkle in his eyes that Jaune didn’t even want to start beginning to decipher, the Headmaster said, “I can mention to her you wanting to go into town, and I’m sure she will be more than willing to take you along.” 

Jaune started to speak, but Professor Ozpin held up a finger, cutting him off. “Provided you return to bed before she catches you. I promise you she will not be as lenient as I.”

Jaune cannot freaking believe his luck, because what the heck. How. How had he been caught sneaking around by the freaking Headmaster, planning to do things that were almost definitely against the school rules, and he decided not only to have mercy on him, but to make him an offer?

An offer to let him do what he wanted, no less, but this time without the dangers of getting caught and without having to go through another day of classes without having slept a wink.

“I, um, thank you, Professor,” he tried his best to be respectful and look like a model student, because oh gods don’t blow this now in the eleventh freaking hour of this conversation.

Jaune ducked his head and rubbed the back of his neck clumsily, uncoordinated with anxiety, and managed to completely miss just how amused Professor Ozpin looked. “I’ll go back to sleep now, yeah, thank you! Thank you, Ozpin. Professor Ozpin. Headmaster. Sir. Goodnight!”

He barely heard him saying a still amused, “Goodnight, Mr. Arc,” back, and he only registered being dismissed and that he was not going to get detention when Professor Ozpin turned around and walked away.

But for the moment, he was pretty sure he was off the hook. He turned around and took off back towards his room. At first he tried his best at a dignified walk before he gave up and just ran .

Totally smooth, back there. Yep. Perfect. Amazing. Got everything under control.

Whatever, he was still in one piece, wasn’t he? 

And he somehow managed to get out of that terrifying encounter as a winner and oh. Oh no, he realized. Nora was going to be awful when she found out in the morning that Jaune nearly got detention for the rest of his life because he was being sappy over Pyrrha and ran into the freaking Headmaster .

He was never going to hear the end of this.

Chapter Text

The next morning, Jaune did indeed go to the city with Professor Goodwitch on her errands after JNPR’s second tournament fight was done. He left behind a very amused Nora. And a seemingly unaffected Ren, and he hadn’t expected any reaction out of him at all, but the knowing smile playing on his lips was more than he’d been expecting.

Pyrrha didn’t see them off. She had some sort of urgent meeting with the Headmaster to attend. Probably just congratulations about their second victory and decision to send her on to the singles round. Definitely.

But now Jaune got to complete the first and more important part of his plan: buying lily seeds.

Goodwitch didn’t ask why he was buying seeds in the middle of the tournament , she didn’t mention the seeds at all until they were already walking towards the docks to head back to the school, and Jaune was starting to feel hopeful that she wouldn't end up asking at all.

Of course he’d never get so lucky.

Except when she spoke, she didn’t even ask what the seeds were for. Which was a problem, because that was the question Jaune had been preparing to answer for the past half an hour. Although whether he was going to lie or tell the truth or say some combination of the two was still a toss-up at this point.

Instead, she just said, in that neutral but pleasant tone of hers, “I think the flower bed outside the dormitories would be a nice place to plant them.”

And okay, yeah, she was totally right and it was what Jaune was thinking too. There was a nice, pretty unoccupied patch of bed right outside the door of the dorms. And planted there, when the flowers grew, they’d be somewhere where they’d be seen every day.

Maybe growing up on a farm was finally amounting to something.

But Jaune didn’t know what to do with the complete lack of prying or scolding or anything of the sort, and so now he didn’t really know how to act at all. And considering the events of last night, he realized, this was the second in what confusingly seemed to be becoming a trend.

“Y-you’re not even asking, like I dunno, why I decided to get some flower seeds?” he asked. Because what was he supposed to do? Just nod and accept that rules-goddess Goodwitch was for some reason giving him permission to deface school property? Agree politely and just go on with his day wondering when the hell his professor’s Semblance expanded from telekinesis to telepathy?

Unless it always included telepathy. Now that was a thought that was going to wake him up in a cold sweat later.

Goodwitch just gave him a small smile, and once again, Jaune could swear she was amused by all of this. Amused but… sad. And he didn’t know how to feel about that either. Two professors in less than two days seemed more amused than irritated by him. He almost preferred it more when they were annoyed, because then at least he knew why.

“We both know why, don’t we Mr. Arc?” she said, and it was hardly a question, despite the wording and tone of it. But before Jaune could jump into denying things he’d never been accused of in the first place, which he had a lot of experience in, she simply added, “I’m sure she’ll love them.”

And Jaune immediately forgot about everything he wanted to deny as he lit up, suddenly excited again. “You think so?”

But Goodwitch was already turning away, conversation apparently over. As she walked back to where their ship was waiting, Jaune had no choice but to run after her, because he know for sure that if he doesn’t make it back to the ship, Goodwitch might just make him climb up the cliff face instead, lily seeds and all.

When they were back at the school after a thankfully uneventfully silent airship ride and Goodwitch left without a word. She gracefully returned to whatever duties she attended to when she wasn’t busy watching most of her students succeed and him make a fool of himself over whatever new training method she decided to throw at them.

Only then did Jaune realize that Goodwitch, and therefore Ozpin, probably knew about the first lily bouquet and its origin all along. And yet, for some reason, they never said anything, and no reprimand had arrived.

And for the life of him, Jaune couldn’t wrap his head around why.

Chapter Text

Jaune tucked the little paper bag of seeds into his pocket and went to find Pyrrha, because she’d had a meeting with the Headmaster earlier and hopefully it was done now. Even more hopefully it wasn’t anything serious.

Luckily he didn’t have to uproot the whole freaking school to find her, because that would be really pushing his luck with Goodwitch, even with how strangely understanding she was being. He found her under one of the Forever Fall trees that lined the courtyard, reading some thick book.

The kind bound in brown leather with golden letters for a title, and Jaune was pretty sure it was poetry, because Pyrrha was just like that.

Struck dumb for a moment at the sight of her sitting and looking so peaceful, with the leaves falling around her exactly the same shade as her hair, Jaune nearly forget what he was doing. She looked like a painting of a long revered hero, the kind that his mom would hang up from a yard sale and dust every day.

Once he remembered, he didn’t hesitate to disturb her peace and accepted no objections, real or fake, as he tugged her from the ground and dragged her along. It was obvious that Pyrrha was more curious and endeared than she was upset about being denied her reading time. She hadn’t really been focused enough to read anyway.

Jaune also refused to tell her what he was up to this time, aside from the fact that no , Nora was not in trouble. And no neither was he, seriously Pyrrha did you not trust him at all?

She did, but not when it came to not ending up neck-deep in chaos for more than ten seconds.

They took a detour to Professor Peach’s classroom closet, which Jaune knew well enough from having hid in it from Weiss’s wrath once. And Weiss had thankfully waited for him outside because she was a classy lady who had something against walking headfirst into dusty old cobwebs.

Jaune made Pyrrha wait outside as well, even though he knew full well she wouldn’t have the same hang ups. He was going to take any chance to extend this surprise that he could.

He eventually emerged with a gardening shovel and a watering can and refused to give Pyrrha either of them. Or tell her what they were for. Knowing Jaune’s reputation for seat-of-his-pants plans, he really hoped Pyrrha wasn’t guessing the obvious, considering that was exactly the plan.

Filling the watering can was yet another adventure that involved Jaune accidentally getting both of their shoes soaked. Pyrrha repaid him by cutting off his string of apologies with a laugh and a spritz of water in his face. 

Watering can momentarily abandoned and then promptly kicked over on accident, Jaune yelped and thoroughly botched his escape.

When Jaune finally flopped down with a refilled watering can on the ground where he wanted to plant, Pyrrha sat next to him. Much more gracefully, he had to admit, but without any hesitation. “Jaune, what-”

“We’re gonna plant some flowers!” Jaune cut in excitedly, tugging the packet of seeds out from his pocket. It was a bit of a hassle honestly, because admittedly, he probably should’ve done that when he was still standing up.

He showed the packet to Pyrrha, who took it from his hand and just stared at it in silence for a while. A smile slowly spread on her lips until she shook her head very, very fondly, and Jaune was positively beaming .

“Oh, Jaune ,” Pyrrha laughed, shaking her head a couple more times. 

And maybe she sounded a little choked up, she wasn’t sure, but she felt choked up because gods damn it. Gods damn it, this idiot. This absolute wonderful idiot , who was really honestly wasn’t that dumb, because he was truly too smart for his own good. 

And so, so kind. And for some stupid reason he insisted on spending all that kindness on Pyrrha of all people. And she just didn’t know how to handle that sometimes, that he really cared about her and not the Invincible Girl. She didn’t know how to show how much he meant to her, how to accept his kindness, how to give any of it back.

So she just dropped her head onto Jaune’s shoulder, nuzzling her forehead against him forcefully, until she felt Jaune stop tensing and his head come to a rest atop hers. And then they just sat there. 

Her face was pushed into the cloth of his sweatshirt, and she was smiling and mumbling something that she hoped was an incredibly well thought out thank you. The packet of lily seeds was still clutched tightly in her hands.

In that moment she loved Jaune so much she felt like she forgot how to breath, discipline be damned.

They ended up getting mud on their clothes and even some on their faces and definitely much, much more on their hands. Dirt black crescents were under their nails and Pyrrha’s sweater was splotched with soil.

But it was fine, because it was fun. Pyrrha was terrible at gardening, not having much experience, but Jaune tried his best to draw on every last thing he remembered from his childhood. And lilies were resilient little creatures anyway, so it was fine.

And once they were done, the once pristine flower bed was torn up and muddy but the watering can was empty. And then empty again after an extra round of water, because they planted a lot of seeds. 

They stayed sitting there on the ground side by side, the sun warm on their skin and their dirt-covered hands intertwined. This time Jaune was the one to drop his head onto Pyrrha’s shoulder, and from the way he leaned into her, the way his thumb traced back and forth against the back of her hand, she wondered if somehow he knew that she was suddenly feeling a tired, sad kind of dread.

Planting flowers was great until you started wondering if you’d ever see them sprout.

Lilies were resilient creatures, not unlike her, and she knew that. It wasn’t the weather or the quality of the seed that she was worried about. It was time. The time that she might not have much left of, anymore. After her meeting with the Headmaster, and the rest of them, and the Maidens, and the magic, she didn’t know how much time she had left.

Pyrrha could suddenly count on her fingers how many days she had left to live if things didn’t go to plan. Or maybe if they did go to plan, because she still didn’t know if the plan she was working off of matched up with theirs.

Jaune pressed his face into her hair then, saying things he wasn’t sure she heard much less believed. “You’re gonna be fine, kay? I don’t know what’s wrong… really, but I’m here to help. You’re gonna be fine.” A futile promise against her unknowable fate, but a promise he couldn’t help but make over and over, hoping that one day he wouldn't have to.

“And you-”

She tugged her hand out of Jaune’s, but he wrapped the arm around her instead, and he immediately squeezed her closer as he felt her start to cry. 

This weird sort of crying that she’d undoubtedly learned at some point in her celebrity life. Her breaths steady and even but the rest of her shaking, with whines that got swallowed in her throat. She made up for her lack of sobs with endlessly flowing tears. 

If she let herself cry normally, the mask she wore in public would shatter, and it occurred to Jaune for the hundredth time just how cruel that was.

“I really don’t know what’s wrong, but you can do this,” he reassured her, trying to keep the shake out of his voice because gods dammit he was trying to be the strong reliable one right now, voice don’t you dare betray him. He pressed a kiss to her head and set his chin on top of it. Pyrrha could feel his voice rumbling in his chest. 

“You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met.” And Pyrrha’s voice did hitch at that “I know you can do this.”

Pyrrha was scared, she was scared to die. But she was more scared to watch others die because she decided to make the wrong decision. She was scared to plunge headlong into this fight that wasn’t supposed to start yet.

She didn’t want to think about her upcoming decision, or the tournament fights that would precede it. And she really didn’t want to think about after either, because who knew who she would even be on the other side, if she made it at all. With her foreseeable life possibly being barely more than a week, she didn’t want to think about anything at all.

But then Jaune’s words made her think about training on the roof. And having to stop Nora from punching him awake in the middle of class after they trained too late. And this made her think of the way his expression then mirrored the affronted look he’d worn during their first bout of the tournament when they’d teased him about the team attack names. 

And for a moment, she almost laughed. But then her thoughts drifted forward to the vault, and the conversation there, and she was back to being terrified.

“After,” he started, and even despite all his effort he definitely one hundred percent sounded like he was crying. “After we’ve won the tournament” And because that wasn’t touching close enough to his actual question, he added, “What are you gonna do?”

He wished he was as focused on just winning as he tried to make himself sound. Wished that his entire world wasn’t hanging on what Pyrrha’s answer was.

“I haven’t thought that far ahead yet,” Pyrrha admitted, nuzzling her head into his shoulder that was now soaked from her tears, and she wished that she could answer the question that she could hear hiding underneath the one he’d actually said. “Not much, anyway.”

Because she was scared to. Because this was the Destiny she’d been striving for all this time. The only goal she’d ever had, so what came after that?

Her life had been written like a script for her ever since she started training and felt how right her spear felt in her hands. So what would happen when the words on the page ran out? When the blank pages were held out in front of her, what would she write now that she had the power?

Pyrrha barely dared to hope that there would be a page for her to write on at all.

“I have,” Jaune said, and his chest wasn’t hitching anymore, thank the gods. Pyrrha watched as his free hand picked at the muddy grass below them.

She willed the familiar nervous energy the motion held to calm her down. Pyrrha hummed. “Any ideas?” Because she didn’t have any for once. Her book was quite possibly coming to a close, so any ideas he had of what to do to add new pages was welcome.

Jaune’s hand stilled, and he stayed quiet for a few breath’s time. Pyrrha didn’t rush him. “Ask me when we get there.”

And when he pressed another kiss into her hair, Pyrrha wished that she could promise to do that.

Chapter Text

Before, during, after Penny, the mere thought that that really happened terrified Jaune. The panic and confusion in Pyrrha’s eyes, the way she fought. Jaune had known she was hurting, but if he’d known it went this far... How could he not have seen this ? How could he have gone back to being such an idiot now of all times?

His hands clutched at the railing, fingertips gone white.

He barely heard Ren talking to him, barely felt Nora holding him back, and he definitely didn’t understand what they were saying. The crowd was screaming and pointing at something in the ceiling, but he could only see Pyrrha standing frozen among the wreckage of… of a person .

Alone. Alone like she should never be. Not when Jaune was here, not with everything he’d promised himself and promised Her.

He jumped over the railing without a word and ran towards Pyrrha.

Then the ceiling exploded, and dark hell rained from above. Wings the size of cars with feathers to match, and a rush of wind like a hurricane blew Jaune tumbling head over heels away from his partner.

As soon as he could think, his hand fell to his waist where his sword was missing because of course it was. Why couldn’t things ever be easy? 

Jaune needed his weapon, because without that how could he possibly help Pyrrha? Plans rolled and clicked in his mind, like the numbers at a train station, clicking and changing until eventually they reached the only combination that made sense. Working together was the only way this would work.

His Scroll was in one hand, and he shot a message to everyone he knew, hoping beyond hope that they got it, and that they would choose to consider it if they managed to read it. Ren and Nora certainly did, for there they were at his side suddenly, and he nearly cried seeing how they were following his lead, Scrolls also in hand.

A blur of red shot past him as he punched in the coordinates for his locker. Ruby. he knew those petals anywhere, but she couldn’t do this alone and she wouldn’t dammit. Not if he had anything to say about it, and by the gods he hoped that he did.

Jaune heaved himself back up over the lip of the stage, Ren and Nora following much more coordinatedly beside him. Ruby was standing in front of Pyrrha, the only thing between his partner and the Nevermore. And the only thing standing between Ruby and certain death was the hauntingly familiar sword she held in one shaking hand.

Those swords would never fly unsuspended through the air again. Their owner lay in pieces on the ground, skewered by them.

Ruby was screaming at the Grimm, and her voice carried even over the pandemonium that the crowd was raising. The Nevermore let out an ear piercing shriek, and it charged at her. Jaune nearly collapsed with relief when it was skewered to the stage by his and his teammates' lockers.

He got a little choked up for reasons he couldn’t quite explain when they were followed not a split second later by Sun, Neptune, the rest of their team, Velvet’s whole team, and the rest of their opponents from the tournament. 

They’d gotten his message. They’d actually listened .

The rest of the fight was a blur. Fitting together like a well-oiled machine, Jaune was astounded how easily the coordination came to all of them even though they’d never fought together before.

Pyrrha was crying, and Ruby was comforting her. Jaune, sword secured at his waist and making him feel a lot less vulnerable, held her close to him. He wished he could promise her that they could do this, like he’d promised before, but he wasn’t so confident now.

All he could do was put her weapons in her hand. Jaune held her hands tight for a moment, and forced her to look him right in the eyes, hoping that everything he couldn’t verbalize would somehow be beamed straight into her mind. 

The concern he felt, and the fear, and the nausea, and the- And a bunch of other things, best to leave it at that. But mostly he tried to relay to her that he had received the message of overwhelming unrelenting love that she put into every single one of their interactions.

He didn’t know if she got the message in return, but a light that had been missing returned to her emerald eyes .

Gryphons flew in through the broken ceiling. Port and Oobleck insisted that they leave. They reluctantly followed their professors’ wishes, and then all decided en masse to defend the town that had been their home for as little as a few weeks for some of them.

They fought. Pyrrha stayed by his side the whole time, and Jaune couldn’t have been dragged from her side by the fiercest Beowulf. He could almost pretend that it was just a normal training day if it wasn’t for all the fire ruining the image.

And the smoke clogging the sky and blotting out the stars. The screaming of civilians in fear, and roaring of extremists in elation. The robots with glowing red lights, that were supposed to protect them and were now fighting tooth and synthetic nail to mow them down.

Pavement trembled beneath his feet, and only Pyrrha’s steadying arm kept him from pitching headfirst into the ground. Sun wasn’t so lucky, as Neptune was either too busy to catch his partner, or just wasn’t bothered. Jaune almost laughed at his indignant expression. The world was coming apart at the seams and he was laughing.

A Grimm the size of a small building burst out of a mountain that was too small to really hold it. Jaune’s mind couldn’t wrap its way around a flying Grimm that big that wasn’t a Nevermore. The red translucent wings that dripped death and more Grimm down all around them made it clear enough that this was no mockery of a bird.

Maybe it was a mockery of a mockery. Or a mockery of a mockery of a mockery. Twice the abomination, twice the fun.

The fighting became more desperate. Jaune began to lose sight of some of the more familiar faces. And then a new but surprising familiar face entered the edges of the fray in his periphery. Pyrrha froze at the sight of the Headmaster standing at the foot of the tower.

Just standing there. Looking calm, but desperately sad.

Pyrrha’s face fell, gaining back that dread that Jaune hadn’t been able to help with, and she left the fight to jog over to the waiting Headmaster. Jaune didn’t hesitate before running after her, shouting a hurried explanation over his shoulder to his teammates.

The main hall of the school was a nightmare . Bodies littered the floor, ripped to shreds by the Grimm melting into black smoke right beside them. These were the students not lucky enough to make it outside the building before the carnage started. As for the Grimm…

Well, at least it explained the slowly vanishing tar on the Headmaster’s cane.

And if the main hall was a nightmare, the vault was a nightmare wrapped in a horror story topped with everything designed to stab Jaune directly in the soul. He didn’t understand a lick of what was happening. Only that Pyrrha was involved for some reason, and that meant that of course he was on board with whatever was happening. As long as she was.

She got in the pod, and with his back to her, sword ready to defend the most important person in his life from whatever dared to try to hurt her, he didn’t see her wipe a tear from her eye. He also didn’t see her mouth a goodbye before she had to look away from him for fear of changing her mind.

Jaune did hear her start screaming bloody murder as soon as the machine behind him started glowing. The woman in the other pod was screaming right along with her, and Jaune didn’t even know her, but he knew that he wanted this to stop more than he’d ever wanted anything in the world. 

The Headmaster wouldn’t listen to him, and he clearly couldn’t hear Pyrrha, because if he could then why wasn’t he doing anything? No, all Ozpin was doing was watching Pyrrha writhe in that orange light.

Wearing that desperately sad expression.

The same one that he’d worn in their conversation a day and a half before. The same one Goodwitch had been wearing at the docks only a couple hours ago. The one that they’d had every time Jaune bent the rules to make Pyrrha even a little bit more happy than she was, to show her how much he cared.

The one that he realized far too late, with the sickeningly familiar feeling of figuring out the joke and realizing that it had been on him the whole time, meant that they’d known what was wrong with Pyrrha the whole time

Jaune wanted to rip that gods damned cane out of Ozpin’s hand and smash him over the head with it. 

Or maybe just the console of the contraption that was making the most important person in his life scream like her bones were on fire. All that stopped him was this nightmare being interrupted by another player. 

A player who halted whatever torturous horribleness was happening to Pyrrha by dropping down the elevator shaft and unceremoniously shooting the other woman in the chest.

The same orange light rushed out of the woman’s chest as blood filled her lungs and flooded the newcomer with fire. Jaune jumped forward to fight her, to throw himself in between this person and Pyrrha, who was already pounding weakly against the confines of her glass prison.

A blast of energy knocked him on his back before he made it two steps, and with a scream that barely reached him through the ringing of his ears, Pyrrha was there. She helped him to his feet, and on the order of the Headmaster, they both ran out of the room. 

A pit formed in Jaune’s stomach as he watched the woman float to the ground, eyes literally ablaze how the hell- Ozpin faced off against her, armed only with his cane and a determined expression. And then the elevator doors closed.

Pyrrha was trembling beside him.

The horrors of the hall seemed like nothing after what they’d seen beneath the school. The floor shook under their feet from the Headmaster and woman’s battle. Barely out the front doors, Pyrrha and Jaune’s eyes traced the out-of-sight noise of what sounded like a rocket ascending the elevator shaft.

The Headmaster was dead.

Pyrrha was watching where she’d gone. Jaune was watching her. Watching the scenarios roll over in her head, coming to the same conclusions, and thinking about what he could possibly do to stop the foregone conclusion they both would come to.

Jaune thought about the lilies he bought her all those months ago. He wondered if they’d make it back at all to water them after all this. Or maybe they’d just wilt on their own in an abandoned dorm room, never to be found again. 

She was talking now, about how there wasn’t enough time, and his stomach twisted. His chest hurt with pain and fear and grief, and a voice in his head was screaming, “You’re losing her, you’re losing her!”

He was blabbering, he knew he was, he always was, but words were all he had left now. And then his words were cut off by her lips on his. And she was crying, and he was crying, and they fit together and that hurt.

He thought about potted hyacinths on windowsills and lawn daisies in fire-red hair and lily seeds clutched in a pair of dirty palms. 

Pyrrha pulled away, and now she had the desperately sad expression. But Jaune knew what it meant now. So when she tried to launch him away, Semblance flickering black over her palms, Jaune wrapped his arms around her and took her with him.

She fell on top of him, added weight ruining her planned trajectory and sending them tumbling into the side of the locker. Tears were still streaming down his face, and they were mingling with hers as she begged him to let her go. Pyrrha struggled out of his grip, because even trembling he was no match for her.

Red hair flew like a rocket behind her as she sprinted away from him towards the dark inside of the school, and the death that waited for her there, and he screamed for her to wait.

And his heart skipped a beat when she stopped, turned around, and did.

Jaune had realised long ago that he’d followed Pyrrha anywhere. And after lilies smuggled in after hours, hyacinths from a school trip, daisies plucked out of the ground and woven into hair, and seeds planted into the earth to sprout new life. 

After all that, she was letting him follow her.

Chapter Text

Jaune had too many feelings welling up inside of him, he didn’t even know how they all fit , just that they were too much and too loud and he didn’t know how to deal with them. Or how to make them go away, for that matter. 

He needed to clear his head or just do something to pretend that things were fine for a moment, even though they were the furthest that they’d ever been from being fine. What he needed was to move. Just move, move, move , but pacing the length of the Rose-Xiao Long house a hundred times was not enough

And he knew it wasn’t enough, and he knew it was getting annoying to the occupants. Ruby’s uncle kept giving him weird looks every time he passed, Ruby’s dad kept looking like he wanted to put Jaune into a bed just like his actual daughters, and Ren and Nora were staring at him too, fuck, fuck -

So he ended up wandering the street of Patch.

It didn’t last him long. Jaune didn’t know where he was going after all. He honestly didn’t think he was going anywhere, he was just going . But the moment his harried pace had him passing by a flower shop, something clicked into place.

Something familiar.

It didn’t make the fear and pain and everything else squirming around in his chest go away. It didn’t make him want to curl up and cry and hope that things would just go away on their own any less. But it was something of a comfort.

The shop was nothing like the one in Vale, the walls weren’t wood and the shelves weren’t painted all different colors, and the shopkeep didn’t roll their eyes fondly when he walked in the door for the upteempth time that week. And the unfamiliarity stings unexpectedly. 

He never thought that only after a couple months, most of which he didn’t even spend in Vale, he’d be homesick for it anyway.

The prices were higher than in the little Vale corner shop, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. There were so many more pressing matters to worry about now with the Grimm occupying the city and his friends scattered to the four winds. Who cares what he’s doing with his pocket money.

He ended up walking out of the shop with a single red rose in his hands.

He found Pyrrha in her and Ruby’s shared room, thank the gods, because he right now he honestly didn’t think he could take arriving back where he’d left her and finding her not there. If she wasn’t there, he didn’t know how long he could go around looking for her before his anxiety would get to be too much to bear

Jaune also honestly didn’t know if his nerves could take searching for her and then running into Ruby’s uncle. Dude was scary enough during the day, why’d have to go around lurking ominously just around a corner in what had to be a scheme to scare him out of his freaking wits.

Sometimes Jaune swore the guy could teleport.

But thankfully, Pyrrha was sitting in her bed, reading a similar book to the one she’d been reading before Jaune pulled her into planting flowers with him. Brown cover, golden letters, probably poetry on its pages.

But it wasn’t the same one. That one was buried in rubble somewhere on the mainland, in the best case scenario. Worst case, it was already reduced to dust like the rest of the school. 

Because this isn’t Beacon. And the book isn’t the same, and the flower shop is different, and Pyrrha tenses when she looks up. Fear clouds her eyes for a moment before she realizes its just Jaune. He feels like he wants to turn right out of the room and crawl into a hole.

Jaune settled into the chair beside her bed, already fidgeting awkwardly and he was pretty sure his hands were shaking when he handed Pyrrha the rose. “I, uhh… brought you something,” he said, not unlike that first time with the lilies. Gods, has it really only been a month?

Pyrrha puts a hand on his and kisses him softly before he could stammer anything else, which was great, because he wasn’t sure his nerves could take that either. He thought he heard a quiet “thank you” in there before he was being kissed again, slow and soft, Pyrrha’s free hand cradling his jaw and eventually Jaune was pretty sure he could feel her smiling faintly against his lips.

Half of his mind was still freaking out that this was a thing that could now happen, and the other half of his mind was occupied trying to keep himself from thinking about how every kiss could now be their last. He really, really didn’t want to think about that.

So Jaune focused on Pyrrha instead. They were both here. In the present. They were both alive and warm and not collapsed on top of a tower skewered with too many arrows to count. His heart clenched a little and the panic in his chest swelled when Pyrrha pulled away, but she still held him close, and her eyes were slow to open like she wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere.

Not that there was anywhere to go even if she could. That thought made the big bundle of fear and pain in Jaune’s chest clench, and for once hearing the subtle laughter in Pyrrha’s voice didn’t help.

“Oh Jaune, you big softie,” she smiled, hand sliding up his face so that she could ruffle gently through Jaune’s hair. “Who’s the romantic now? Bringing me a red rose, of all things.” She laughed again as she leaned back into her pillows.

But the sound is more strained and more weak than it should be. And her smile is faint and doesn’t reach her eyes. And he sees how her eyes flicker over to Ruby still unconscious in the other bed from whatever she did after they both passed out on top of the tower. 

So despite the definite lack of Grimm around, and the distance between here and Beacon, the fear in Jaune still grew. Because oh gods, what if this is it ? What if now is when they share their last kiss, their last embrace, the last time he could bring Pyrrha flowers, the last time they could be together like this?

And it didn’t snap and it didn’t burst, but it hurt too much to hold back anymore. Pyrrha saw the shift in his face before it happened and followed it without hesitation. She put the rose on the bedside table without having to think about it, leaving both hands free to squeeze Jaune tight against herself, because she knew already that the pressure helped.

She held Jaune tight and brushed a hand through his hair, leaned with him when the nervous terrified energy trapped inside him made him have to sway from side to side just to be rid of it. Pyrrha promised him that they would be okay, another one for the pile of hundreds of promises she didn’t know how to keep but would do anything to anyway.

Pyrrha held Jaune until he stopped shaking, until they both felt ready to go out and face the world again.

Chapter Text

It felt so, so long ago when Jaune had asked Pyrrha to ask him again about his thoughts on the future after they won the tournament. Between the fiasco that the tournament ended up turning into and everything after that, it just slipped both of their minds.

Recovering for months, happy for the little things, like that their hearts were all still beating, and also desperately sad for the uncountable things they’d all lost. Following Ruby to Haven, Ren’s revelation in Kuroyuri, and Jaune’s at the Academy. Finally meeting up with everyone again, their little family all back together after too long, and then off again to Argus.

Dandelions from the side of a dirt road in Mistral tucked behind her ears when she wasn’t looking. Water lilies plucked from a river behind Haven Academy and woven into a makeshift crown.

Splitting up again, meeting up again, bunking over at his sister’s house, and something that shifted between Yang and Blake that had Nora rolling her eyes and going “Finally.” And then fleeing to Atlas.

Making new friends, refinding ones who’d been lost, and losing new friends all wrapped up into one big mish-mash. Catastrophe after catastrophe, the world, Salem, and all her armies falling from the sky around them. Nora, Oscar, Penny-

Too many losses to count. The Fall of Beacon looked like a water gun fight.

Stubborn daisies that pushed up through the cracks of Mantle’s streets, and snowdrops stolen from the pristine flower beds of Schnee Manor. 

Word from Vacuo from Sun and his team. A scorching battle through the desert, and in the desert. Death and heat and new threats that got dwarfed by the old ones. Allies that he would die for in an instant proving that they would do the same for him.

Cactus blooms, red with the sun’s rays, and tufts of marigolds tucked under her crown.

Back to Beacon in a race against time and the gods themselves. Red lilies, and roses, and hyacinths, and seeds barely sprouting from ash-covered ground. Light as bright as the moon and as deep as the sea.

And then it was over.

Somewhere along the way past the blur of white lights and sterile smells, too-coarse sheets and the clicking of crutches against cracked tile floors, and teary kisses, she remembered to ask.

And when she did, Jaune got flustered, his hands fumbling and eyes never quite finding where to look. But eventually he asked, “Would you come back to Mistral with me?”

Pyrrha didn’t hesitate for a moment before saying yes.

And that’s how they ended up in their own little apartment in a village in Mistral of all places, on some level high enough that it still gave Jaune vertigo sometimes when he thought about it. He’d sort of forgotten that Pyrrha’s family was well off, what with the overhaul that the world had gone through, but he wasn’t surprised that they handled their money this way.

Selfless. Stubbornly so. 

They were related to Pyrrha, after all.

They wanted her and Jaune to have a steady, fresh start without having to worry about where to lay their heads or feel like they were intruding somewhere, but it still felt surreal. This little piece of home, where they were somehow safe from the rest of the world, where they could just exist as themselves .

Not unlike how it had been at Beacon, what felt like another lifetime ago.

There was a potted hyacinth on the windowsill. Actually three of them now, all different colours. The first Jaune bought the day after they got settled in, the second about a week later, the third one only yesterday. Always a little surprise, serving to light up Pyrrha’s day, making it all feel just that much more like a dream.

There were lilies buried in the planter on the balcony and some dirt still hid against the outer edge of the doorstep from the morning they spent sitting out there, their gardening skills having developed none but their enthusiasm unbroken.

This time Pyrrha was smart enough to wear old, worn shoes to the occasion and Jaune, the absolute barbarian , opted simply for socks, but neither of these facts saved them both from somehow getting dirt all the way up into their hair.

Nora wouldn’t stop teasing Jaune about that from outside the bathroom door the whole time he was in the shower while their respective partners lounged on the coach in the living room. This taunting was an entirely wasted effort considering Jaune could barely even hear her over the water.

Their teammates were all but legally their family as always, and their sister team wasn’t much behind them and they all came over often. Oscar seemed a lot more content and somehow softer now, without the weight of the world resting on his shoulders.

Jaune’s mother had welcomed Pyrrha like it was the most natural thing in the world, like there was never a single doubt that she was part of the family now, in any which way she wanted to be, and she could leave now even if she tried.

The last time Pyrrha used her Semblance was to float something Jaune dropped up out of the kitchen sink, and the last time Jaune used his was to mend a cut over his nephew’s eye when he tripped and fell into said sink. With no more world ending events, gods willing don’t tempt them, it felt strangely freeing to use their respective gifts for such mundane tasks.

Somehow, by some king quiet miracle, everything was okay, and their biggest worry was what to have for dinner.

Pyrrha came home with a bag of groceries on one arm and a bouquet of flowers tucked against the other. A proper bouquet, if from the supermarket, with colourful flowers she was sure that Ren could call by name.

She didn’t usually go grocery shopping on her own. and neither did Jaune. Not yet. Not when being apart after everything they’d been though still felt too terrifying. But when she left this morning, Jaune was still nothing but an uncooperative, half-asleep lump in their bed. And Pyrrha was determined to eat something better than takeout if she could help it, so she’d had to take matters into her own hands.

Buying the bouquet, somehow, was a comforting addition to the trip.

Jaune was still wearing pajama bottoms and a novelty Argus tourism shirt when he poked his head out of the kitchen to greet her. And for a moment Pyrrha wondered if it was a sign of their closeness how easily she could tell that Jaune’s hair was still morning-messy and not “I’m trying my best, so I made it look like this on purpose” messy.

She didn’t even get to chide him fondly about being such an absolute disaster, because Jaune was already bounding out of the kitchem towards her and she suddenly had much more important matters on her hands. She set the groceries on the ground next to her feet for now, and held out the bouquet towards him with a small smile.

“Here,” she said, sounding significantly smoother than Jaune did any time he’d given her flowers in the past, but feeling not a bit more confident. “For you.”

Somehow, Pyrrha didn’t anticipate the hug.

It was sudden and tight, with Jaune’s free arm around her neck while the other held the bouquet somewhere by his side, hopefully safe. It only took Pyrrha a moment to react anyway, arms wound tight around Jaune like always, always . She felt more than she heard the giddy “Thank you!” murmured into the skin of her neck, as she laid her head against Jaune’s.

She briefly wondered if anyone has ever thought to bring Jaune flowers before.

Why hasn’t she, before this?

She pushed him back, gently and not much, just enough to see his face and lean in close. She didn’t kiss him, not yet, because there was so much to admire and so much to love , and finally after all this time, they really weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere.

So Pyrrha just pressed her forehead against Jaune’s, not unlike how she used to back at Beacon, dancing around kisses in every way she knew how. She hummed when their noses brushed, and Jaune leant into her more like he always did.

Pyrrha ran a hand through his wonderfully messy hair, ruffling it up even more, as she pulled him closed.

“You’ve been getting me flowers all this time, and I never once did the same,” she murmured. “It’s about time I started catching up, don’t you think?”

She felt Jaune laugh against her lips before she finally kissed him.