Disclaimer: RWBY and all affiliated characters/titles belong to Rooster Teeth, those wonderful geniuses.

Jaune stepped into his relatively quiet dorm room. The only sound coming from anyone in his room was the soft drone of music coming from Nora's headphones. The girl was hyperactive, easily excitable, and even more impulsive than a certain little brunette but when she chose to relax she was quite capable of sitting on her bed for hours, listening to a wide variety of music from full operas to hard metal and punk. Sometimes she would just lay out on her bed, kicking her legs and drumming her hands to the music. Other times, like now, she used the music as a way of shutting out the outside world so she could focus on something like her studies or a book. It was when Nora did this that the JNPR dorm room was at it's most peaceful.

Ren was sitting in the middle of the floor, in the small gap between the two sets of beds. His legs were crossed in a peculiar fashion, with his feet resting on top of his knees in a way that forced his back straighter and stretched his legs slightly. Jaune had not understood the quiet boy at first, his calm demeanor and nearly mute personality was hard to come to terms with and even harder to try and bond with. But, as they spent more and more time together Jaune learned that the boy wasn't necessarily quiet or soft spoken, he just chose his words very carefully and made every utterance count. Beside the fact that he was content to let others speak their minds and was always a willing listener. Except for during his meditation.

Everybody had their way of finding inner peace at the end of the day. Nora and her music, Pyrrha exercised like a woman possessed, Ruby did laps of the dorm building's hallways apparently and Ren, Ren meditated for a solid hour every night and his team respected him and his practices enough to never disturb him.

So, Jaune, seeing that his teammates were settling in for the evening, slowly closed the door behind him with a soft click. He sat down on the edge of his bed lightly and began removing his shoes. Jaune would normally pry them off the back of his feet with the toe of the opposite shoe and worry about unlacing them in the morning but tonight the room was quiet and peaceful and he had a lot on his mind. So, he began the slow process of undoing the muddled knots his laces formed throughout the day and loosening the shoes until he could slide them off with ease. He then removed his socks, chest plate and sweater so he was down to just jeans and a plain white t-shirt. He quickly hampered his dirty clothes in the bathroom and began scrubbing his armour.

His weapons were kept in a rocket powered locker alongside the rest of the student's gear but his chest plate never left him. He cleaned and polished it every evening and stored it under his bed to be donned the next day without fail. Some of the only times he was without it were on journeys into the city, when he could allow himself to relax, no longer a soldier in training but a citizen enjoying the peace and prosperity they all worked so hard to defend. Once his armour was satisfactorily cleaned and cared for he stowed it under his bunk and headed for the shower.

Each room at Beacon was home to a full team, four students who would be together for their entire time at the school. Regardless of gender they shared a single room as they would share every responsibility and duty as a unit. This meant that each room got its own bathroom which was to be used and respected by the entire team. Luckily for Jaune growing up with seven sisters and many fewer than seven bathrooms meant that he was used to having to wait his turn for a shot at the facilities and had developed a rather rapid evening routine. His showers took no more than three minutes and perhaps another three went to cleaning his teeth and face at the sink. He was done and out in under ten minutes without fail everytime, not because he was ever rushing himself, just because that's how long it took him to do what he needed to do.

He finished drying himself off and donned a grey long sleeve shirt and a pair of soft sweatpants to sleep in before re-emerging into the room. He had only been back with his team for perhaps twenty or thirty minutes but it appeared that Ren was already finished with his meditation as he was now sitting calmly at one of their desks, running a small cleaning brush through the barrel of one his identical pistols. One aspect of his teammates complicated weapons that Jaune did not envy was the heavy maintenance required. Although they seemed to do it without thought, he was glad that he simply needed to clean his gear and hone his blade's edge. Jaune sat down on his bed, resting his skull on the headboard and stared at the ceiling without a word.

What was going on? What were these thoughts running through his mind? He closed his eye to try and focus but the harsh fluorescent lighting of the room pierced the thin membrane of his eyelids and caused him to see a soft red blur instead of the darkness he was looking for. Jaune groaned and threw his arms across his eyes to block out the light. In the darkness of his obscured vision Jaune was finally able to begin processing what he was feeling. Maybe he needed some sort of routine for clearing his mind on evenings like this.

Jaune had been convinced that his natural good looks and his over confident personality and general talent at talking to and being relaxed around women would mean that he would have an easy time with girls at Beacon. Perhaps he had failed to realize that here, every single person was nearing athletic perfection for their body type, here every girl he put his eyes on was confident enough to slam a door in his face. He had nothing against the shyer females at Beacon like Velvet or Blake and he even thought Velvet's ears were kinda cute. That just wasn't really his type, Jaune was pulled to more confident over spoken women, maybe because his sisters were so loud and domineering that he didn't know how to be with someone who was quiet.

So he had started after Weiss with a passion, how could she say no? Sure she was rich and powerful and above it all but he was a fellow hunter in training and that put them on an even playing field right? Never had he been so wrong. He had mental scars and tales to tell of all the different ways he had propositioned Weiss and the single way she always shot him down, 'No'. But everyone knew that was just a thing with Jaune, even he knew there was no real emotion there. When would he have had the time to develop it? So now, now that he had developed something real, something tangible, he was worried. What if this was no different. This girl was incredible, her skill on the battlefield was nearly unparalleled, her confidence with others unshakeable and her spirit like a roaring fire. No one ever questioned her devotion to being a huntress and no one ever could. To do so would be to put themselves at the end of a very long sniper rifle, or possibly on the wrong side of Yang's Ember Celica. Ruby was without a doubt, the most devoted huntress in training Jaune had ever met because her fervor extended far beyond the scope of physical training.

Ruby was a fanatic, nothing outside of becoming the most capable Grimm slayer and most noble leader seemed to matter. Sure, around her friends she was goofy and whined about studying or being forced on a stricter diet but they all knew better. It was no secret that she sat at the top of their combat rankings, trading off with Pyrrha for the title of number one from day to day. And despite Weiss's constant badgering she had thrown herself headlong into her studies, greeting them on many mornings with heavy bags under her eyes from a night of non-stop studying. Did it ever dampen her mood? Never. She was always the first to jump at a chance to do something as a group, the loudest laughter at the table, except when Yang was laughing at her expense, and had a bright twinkle in her silver eyes that hinted at a hunger for more.

Jaune rolled over, letting his arms fall to his sides and buryied his face in his pillow with a muffled groan. Pyrrha was driving him like a slave and his muscles were screaming at him. How was he supposed to use his aura to repair the damage from that day's training if they kept sparring until his scroll was screaming out a warning that he was about to run out completely. Oum he was sore.

"Is something wrong?" Jaune shifted his head so he could look sideways through a curtain of blonde hair to see Ren, sitting still at the desk but turned sideways and resting his hand on his lap, back perfectly erect.

"Just sore from training tonight." Jaune told him, it wasn't a lie but it was definitely not the truth and Ren knew it but he simply nodded and returned to cleaning his pistols. Jaune laid there for a moment, watching Ren's methodical nature. He went about caring for his weapons the same way he went about nearly everything he did in life, slowly and with huge amounts of forethought. The entirety of both pistols were disassembled and laid out neatly on the table before him in a very precise arrangement, looking like an exploded view diagram from an engineering text. He went over every piece big or small, oiling and wiping down any moving part, ensuring no screw was stripped or worn. Jaune picked his head up off the pillow and picked it up, letting it drop back on top of his head once again sealing him into darkness.

So she was a model huntress, so what? So was Yang, and Weiss and who could explain how Blake was as talented as she was, it was like the girl had been fighting for survival her entire life, heck his own teammate Pyrrha was an international champion, instantly recognizable and nearly synonymous with the ideals of the huntress profession. So why could he not get the little brunette girl out of his head? It seemed that his every thought wound up on her, and not along some meandering path that eventually dropped a giggling visage of her face into his mind's eye. No, the effect was almost immediate. What would be a cool training exercise for the team, oh I know, we could train with RWBY. I'm bored and alone in my room. I know I'll see what Ruby's up to. Jaune just couldn't explain it to himself.

Then there was what had happened today. Cardin was like that on a daily basis, no one was free from his belittling comments, especially those he was confident he was stronger than like Jaune or Velvet. Jaune had seen him pick on people and harass Faunus dozens of times and had never really stepped in. But today, today when he saw Cardin going for Ruby he did something completely out of character for himself and stepped in. Where had that come from? Sure Jaune had beat Cardin in a match, a sparring match, in class, and barely at that. But that didn't mean he had completely overcome their adversity, it probably meant that now Cardin had a grudge against him specifically where before he was just another person in a long line of victims.

It hadn't even been a conscious decision, stopping Cardin at lunch. One minute Jaune was heaping food onto his plate and he saw Ruby stepping between Cardin and Velvet, the next thing he knew he was gripping Cardin's wrist like his life depended on it. A commanding tone had entered his voice that he didn't even recognize and he had carried himself even higher than the day he learned his plan to get into Beacon had worked. All because of her, he had stepped in to protect Ruby on impulse, because he knew he had to. Jaune picked himself up, pulling his head out from under the pillow and sat cross-legged on his bed to stare at Ren.

"Hey Ren, what do you think of Ruby?" Jaune knew the boy was sitting there, waiting for him to resume their conversation so he did not feel bad for interrupting his weapon maintenance.

"They are a very capable team. Our loss to them-" he started in his usual slow pace.

"No Ren, I mean Ruby. The girl." Jaune cut him off.

Ren closed his eyes and nodded his head slowly, contemplating this new information deeply. Jaune waited, gripping one of his pillows against his chest and leaning forward, letting the cushion take his weight. He really was sore from practice, especially his lower back on the right side, he would have to work his guard over to protect that side better when he attacked. Jaune closed his eyes and stretched slowly by leaning one shoulder over as far as he could. When Ren finally spoke, it startled Jaune so that he fell to the bed.

"I believe," Ren waited for Jaune to sit back up, "I believe she is a superb fighter and a capable leader as well as an excellent friend. Why do you ask?"

"I guess…." He trailed off slightly, he still didn't know why he had asked really, "I don't know. I guess I've just been taking more notice of her lately. Is that weird?"

"Not at all, she is very," Ren stopped to consider his adjective carefully, "attention grabbing."

"Yeah." Jaune dropped his pillow to his side and fell onto his back, laying upside down in his bed. There was a small, suppressed squeal from the other side of the room and he let his head fall to the side to see the source. Nora was now sitting up on her bed, clutching her hand over mouth and failing to hide her ear splitting grin in the slightest, her eyes were sparkling with barely contained excitement.

"Nora-" and that was all Jaune could get out.

"Oh my Oum. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but my playlist ended and you guys were talking and I didn't realize it was something personal until I'd heard too much and oh my Oum Jaune. You have a crush on Ruby! Ahhhhhh" Nora bounced on her bed, landing in a crouch and launched herself across the gap in the middle of the room to tackle Jaune against his mattress in a bear hug, "Jaune that is so great. When you two date, it will be like we are one huge team. I wonder what that would even be." She paused for a moment, trying to combine their eight initials into a somewhat cohesive acronym of their names that represented a color. Jaune struggled out from under her grip and sat up, she was so lost in thought she didn't seem to notice.

"Nora I don't think that I-" she cut him off again

"Periwinkle? Like P-R-R-Y-W-N-...J-B."she trailed off as she reached the end of the word and realized the letters didn't really line up, "Wow that's hard, Ozpin is like a genius or something." She had completely lost her train of thought and was undoubtedly now considering just how smart Headmaster Ozpin was and if he had perhaps used his vast intellect to recruit a team of animal based assassins.

"Nora, I don't think I have a crush on Ruby." Jaune had a truly puzzled look on his face, how had she come to that conclusion?

"What?" Nora was shocked out of her thoughts, "Of course you do! Didn't you just hear yourself? Okay here." Nora turned on him with an incredibly serious look, especially for her, "Do you think about her all the time?"

"Well yeah but I mean…"

"Do you think she's awesome and great and fantastic?"

"Have you seen her fight? She handled you didn't she?"

"Do you care about her and want to protect her?"

"I mean, I want to protect everyone."

"And do you get a really tight feeling in your chest when she's around? Like all the air rushed out and it's just the two of you there with nothing else?"

Jaune stopped and thought back to their conversation in the hallway an hour or so ago, standing there and watching her stare up at the moon. In that moment it was like she was all there was, the hallway and everything faded away around her and all he could focus on was her face, lit by the gentle light of their broken moon.

"Uhhh…. Ummm…." Jaune fumbled for a response.

"See, see see!" Nora was bouncing up and down on his bed again, "You do have a crush on Ruby! Ahh this is so exciting." Nora's bouncing stopped with the click of the door closing. Pyrrha had just returned from her extra training in the gym, Nora turned without missing a beat, "We're gunna be one giant happy team Pyrrha! Isn't that great?"

Pyrrha stood in silence, a rather blank look on her face. She shook her head slightly and regained her voice, "Yes, that's fantastic. Jaune why didn't you say something sooner?" Ren caught her eyes over Nora's shoulder, compassion and understanding pooling in his quiet stare, "You must tell us everything Jaune, just let me shower first." Pyrrha made her way to the bathroom door and quickly shut it behind her.

She stifled a sharp intake of breath with her hands, clasping them over her gaping mouth to try and muffle the start of her sobbing. She quickly turned the shower on high and let the sound of rushing water camouflage her gasps, her shoulders bucking with the effort of quieting herself. Crying was not something Pyrrha did, she couldn't remember ever balling over a scraped knee, crushed hand or broken bone, she was too strong. But this pain, it was as if a corset was being cinched about her heart, the strings pulled until the sides came all the way together. She couldn't breathe properly and her gasps for air came out ragged and hard. She looked about the bathroom, trying to find something, anything. Glancing down she saw a sweater balled up on the floor, a small bunny head outlined on the chest and then the tears ran. She grabbed the sweater and pressed it to her face, taking in his scent and mixing her tears into the fabric.

Ruby quietly opened the door to her dorm room. She had been out longer than she intended, her little talk with Jaune had given her a lot to think about and she knew that she needed some time to process through her thoughts before returning to her team. So she had sat by the big window at the opposite end of the hall, it faced the same direction as where she had met Jaune but was in a corner without a staircase so she wouldn't have her thoughts disturbed. She had sat and watched the moon rise up into the sky, tracing a slow arc across an endless sea of black. She missed the stars that they could see from Patch. There were a few more here at Beacon than down in Vale but they were still so close to the city that the majority of them were obscured by the light pollution. At home the sky was not the bleak, black void they had here. In Patch the sky was a tapestry covered in diamonds, a vast expanse of pinpricks of light that extended far beyond your field of vision and was impossible to keep track of or quantify.

The door creaked slightly as she eased her way into the room and Ruby winced slightly at the noise, hoping she hadn't woken anyone. She glanced first to the most easily offended party and thankfully saw that Weiss had not stirred, then she glanced over to the other pair's bunks, saw and heard Yang still snoring heavily and saw a single ear twitch atop a silky smooth head of jet black hair. Blake was wide awake, taking advantage of her innate Faunus night vision to read by the light of the moon without disturbing her roommate's slumber. She raised her eyes to meet Ruby as she entered the room.

They didn't say a word, but Ruby pushed a smile out. Hoping that by closing her eyes and forcing her dimples to appear that it would convince Blake everything was okay. When she opened her eyes the Faunus girl was standing a few feet from her, her book forgotten on her bed. That was so cool, she would have to ask Blake to teach her how to be quiet like that, then she could sneak back into the room without worrying. Blake leaned her head in the direction of the bathroom and Ruby nodded. They quietly made their way in and silently shut the door behind themselves, waiting to turn on the light until the door was closed.

"I told them I would wait up for you." Blake whispered before Ruby could say a thing, "I had some reading to do so it made sense." Ruby sat down on the toilet with the lid closed and propped her chin in her hands, resting her elbows on her knees.

"Thanks"

"Is something on your mind Ruby?" Blake leaned against the sink, resting her hands on the counter to support her weight.

"Yeah. There's just a lot going on lately." Ruby sank a little, her shoulders drooped and her toes hung limply towards the floor.

"Does it have to do with Jaune?" Ruby jerked her head up in surprise, stunned by her teammate's insight. Then she raised her legs up onto the seat and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"We've been spending a lot of time together lately, between planning training sessions and when we went out to Vale last week. It's a lot of fun, and he's really nice but I don't know." Ruby looked askance of Blake, confusion shimmering across her pale silver eyes.

"Well, what do you want Ruby? Do you see Jaune as a friend?"

"Yeah of course. He's the first friend I made here. He was the only person to talk to me like I was a normal person on my first day." Ruby stopped and caught Blake's eyes, "Except you Blake. So yeah, he's probably one of my best friends." Blake smiled at the young girl.

"So do you want anything more out of it?" Blake's question caused Ruby to blush hard and she averted her gaze.

"It's not that I do or that I don't. We all know how Pyrrha feels about him. I could never hurt Pyrrha, I know she would give everything she wanted for me, or for any of us. So how can I take anything from her?"

"But Ruby, if Jaune doesn't feel the same way about her… then you aren't taking anything because he isn't her's." Blake stepped forward and put a hand on Ruby's back, rubbing a small circle between her shoulder blades that let Ruby relax a little.

"I guess yeah. So I should just wait and see?" Ruby turned up to see Blake's caring amber eyes pouring down on her and her frown eased a little.

"I think so, you have to let Jaune make his choice."

"Thanks Blake." Ruby dropped her feet to the floor, turned and hugged Blake around the waist. Blake smiled and hugged her leader back, pulling her head close to her stomach,

"Of course Ruby." They broke apart and Ruby stood, going for the door. She turned a last smile on Blake as she shut off the light and then opened the door

Harsh fluorescent lights met Ruby and Blake along with the stares of Both Yang and Weiss, sitting on Blake's bed, waiting for them as they came out of the bathroom.

"You two are not as sneaky as you think you are," the heiress shot as they came into the room, "Well you probably are Blake but Ruby makes up for it." Ruby's head fell and she groaned, Blake sighed and walked towards her bed.

"We can talk, but let me sit on my own bed." Blake motioned with her hands for them to move and the other two got up and returned to their own beds, Yang lifting herself into the bunk above Blakes and Weiss making her way across the room. Both she and Ruby sat down on her bottom bunk.

"Soooooo, what's up Rubes?" Yang was sitting against the wall, legs crossed and hands on her knees.

Ruby just looked at the ground.

"She always gets like this. Blake are you gonna tell me?" Yang called down to the bunk below her.

"It's Ruby's decision to talk or not"

"I think I might...kindalikeJaune." the tumult of words came spilling out of Ruby's mouth and caused Weiss to physically recoil in shock. Yang immediately started laughing, doubled over from the effort.

"Jaune? Jaune Arc?" Weiss pointed at their door, most likely across the hall to JNPR's room, "You are crushing on that Jaune?" Ruby gripped the knees of her pajamas tightly in her hands and looked at her lap, blushing furiously.

"This is why I didn't bring it up. And no I am not crushing on him. I just… I just like him is all." Ruby did not bring her gaze up but Yang stopped herself from laughing.

"I'm sorry Rubes. I'm not laughing at you, really I'm not. I'm laughing because this is no big deal." Yang sat up and wiped at her eyes, "You were so serious and came out of their with Blake like someone died or you had been kicked out of Beacon or something." Ruby looked slowly up at Yang, trying to see how sincere her prankster of a big sister was really being. Zwei chose that moment to hop up onto Weiss's bed between the two girls. Ruby seemed to completely ignore him and so Weiss pulled him into her lap and began scratching behind his ears, "Really Ruby, I didn't think that was like a huge secret. That's why I was always joking with you two, trying to grease the wheels you know?" Yang nudged her elbow in the air towards Ruby and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Seriously Yang? This is your little sister." Weiss shot her a condescending glare that was more than a little softened by the fact that she never stopped scratching the adorable puppy in her lap.

"What?" Yang put a hand to her chest in defense, "Jaune's a good guy. I've got no problem with that as long as he behaves himself."

Ruby looked over to Blake for help but the girl just looked back. She had given Ruby her advice already and it was up to her to follow it or not.

"I'm just gonna wait though, I'm not gonna do anything." Ruby looked between Weiss and Yang.

"You don't have to be nervous. I'm sure he'll say yes or just ask you out if you let on that you like him. It's pretty obvious he like's you." Yang looked down at Ruby, the concern of an older sister filling her voice now.

"It's not that. It's just… I don't wanna be in Pyrrha's way." Ruby cast her eyes down again. Weiss reached her free hand up to gently grasp Ruby's shoulder.

"You can't let other people's emotions get in the way of you being happy Ruby. Pyrrha's our friend, she's great, but if Jaune hasn't picked up on her signals yet I don't think he's going to." Weiss's voice carried a warmth that she only used with her teammates and rarely even then.

"Yeah, she's had more than a whole semester already. And she even gets to share a room with him and all their extra training time. I wouldn't worry about it Ruby." Yang's usual jovial tone returned a little, trying to encourage her little sister.

"I'm still gonna wait. If Jaune comes and asks me then I'll be okay with it. But, I don't want to start it, he needs to." Ruby relaxed her hands on her pajama bottoms and looked up at Yang, expecting resistance.

"That is a very mature decision Ruby," Weiss nodded her approval.

"If that's really what you want to do Ruby, okay. But I'm not gonna stop teasing you two." Yang gave her a reassuring smile.

Ruby brightened a little at her team's reassuring words. She had expected a lecture from Yang and Weiss together to go much worse than that. In all honesty they had been very supportive and had ended up reaffirming the advice Blake had already given her, for the most part.

"Thank you guys."

"Alright, time to sleep. Come on everybody bedtime." Weiss even managed to pry Zwei from her lap and set him on the floor, where he promptly curled up and went to sleep, in her desire to get everyone off to bed. Ruby climbed gently onto her bunk and curled under the blankets. She rolled over and stared at the sheet she had hung about her bed like a curtain, waiting until Weiss shut off the lights to close her eyes.

A/N- Okay, this may be my favorite chapter of "Friends and Loved Ones" so far. I really like the conversations here and am just pleased with how it all came out. That said, if this is shit please tell me so that I know.

Thanks so much for reading, there will be a chapter tomorrow and Tuesday and then I'm gonna take a break while I attend Anime Expo in LA. Some people asked about seeing my Skull Kid cosplay...there aren't really pictures here, it doesn't have any kind social media functions. Maybe I will put it as my Profile Picture here for a while...I don't even have one up so yeah maybe that's what I'll do.

See you all tomorrow, please remember to let me know what you think.

-Zach