It had started out innocently enough. He’d been interning at this modeling agency for a couple of months, fetching coffee for photographers and pretty much doing whatever he could to earn a little extra cash.

He hadn’t even realized that Pyrrha was a model there until Ren and Nora showed up for lunch one day.

Following the instructions of one of the photographers, he fetched a couple sandwiches and coffees for one of the models and her friends. He handed them their coffee and made it a full five steps away before his brain processed what he’d seen.

Jaune skidded to a halt and turned fast enough to give himself whiplash. “Ren?! Nora?! What’re you guys-“ he exclaimed, hurrying back over to them and rambling at about 50 miles an hour. Then his eyes found the person they were sitting with and he halted as suddenly as if he’d hit a brick wall.

“Pyrrha?! What- Wait,” he spluttered, gesturing at her. “What are you doing here? How did you know where I work?”

“Jaune, I’ve been working here longer than you have,” Pyrrha said, with a hint of amusement in her voice. Jaune wanted to deny it, but the way Nora was snickering confirmed it better than any investigation could have.

Jaune could feel his face heating up. In hindsight it should’ve been obvious. How oblivious must he have been to never notice her there before?

Jaune had probably handed her a coffee before and not even realized it was her. Probably put coffee in her god damn hand and not even noticed.

Ren pulled out a chair at their table with a sympathetic expression in his face. Jaune sank into it gratefully while Nora cackled. “Wait you’re telling me you didn’t know she worked here?” She seemed to find the whole thing a good deal more amusing than he did.

“Guess I was just really focused on work and I just never noticed,” he replied, somehow flushing an even deeper scarlet. How had he not recognized her? Was he really that unobservant? “Sorry about that, Pyrrha.”

“You did a whole double take and everything!”

“Yeah yeah I know,” he chuckled weakly into his hands.

“Jaune?” Pyrrha’s voice was accompanied by a gentle touch to his arm.

“Hmm? Yeah?” He removed his face from his hands to gaze at her over the table.

“I don’t mind at all that you didn’t recognize me,” she said, smiling softly. “Besides, I think it is very admirable how hard you work.” Their eyes met, and now his face was red for a completely different reason.

Dear lord, how the hell were her eyes that green? It should be illegal to have eyes as green as those. They were dangerous and stuff.

Ever since he’d stopped being an oblivious moron, they’d been meeting up in between shots to talk, and lord above. Eyes like that should come with a warning.

He’d pass behind the camera, and he’d see that she seemed to be getting worn down, so he would bring her a muffin. Or a cup of her favourite coffee, hot and fresh. And every time she’d smile at him, and her eyes would light up and twinkle like a million stars, and he would have a heart attack.

Heart palpitations and everything, and on more than one occasion he’d been left grinning like an idiot for the rest of the day.

Every time he brought up this distressing behavior to Ren and Nora at the cafe they worked at, they’d just exchange knowing looks. They were really annoying, those knowing looks, mostly because Jaune didn’t know what the heck was going on.

All he knew was that when she’d glance over at him from under the lights, and her eyes would be sparkling, and she’d shoot him that smile that she reserved just for him...well god dammit if that didn’t just kill him right on the spot.

“You have good chemistry,” he said. “It’ll be fun,” he said.

And sure, okay it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to get to not be at the beck and call of about fifteen different people. Now people were bringing him coffee, and he didn’t know how to react to that.

And fine, it was nice that he wasn’t just a face in the crowd of the studio and that the photographer knew his name. Gone were the days of “Hey you!” or “John, get over here!” or the ever popular “Tall, blonde, and scraggly, where’s my damn latte?!”

And sure, fine, maybe the fact that it was Pyrrha that he was modeling with was a plus, too. Tall, brilliant, out-of-his-league Pyrrha, who could tolerate his unending stream of consciousness better than anyone he knew.

The makeup people certainly didn’t seem to think it was a good thing, no matter how many times the head photographer raved about how good they looked together. The head makeup artist had to keep halting the shoot, because no amount of makeup seemed to be able to hide his blush.

She just looked so pretty, as dorky as it was to even think that. And she kept shooting him little smiles that he would return shyly, because oh my god she was so pretty. And the photographer kept trying to get them to stand closer together, and proximity wasn’t helping.

And Jaune was just so damn worried he was going to mess it all up. He had no idea what he was doing. Not a single god damn clue, and chemistry be damned, there was no way he had the visual quality or whatever needed to be a model.

If he’d been a little more observant, maybe he would’ve noticed that Pyrrha was getting taken aside by makeup almost as much for the exact same reason.

Because god dammit, Pyrrha could tell he was too busy worrying about messing up the scene to notice that he actually looked good. And he did look good.

Not that she’d noticed, or anything! She totally hadn’t noticed. She specifically remembered not noticing.

She had caught herself watching him when he wasn’t looking a few times. And then Jaune would see her looking his way, and his face would split into a dazzling grin, and her heart would do somersaults in her chest.

Many a morning found her in the cafe down the road, lamenting the newfound developments to an increasingly amused Ren and Nora. They always exchanged glances they thought she couldn’t see, conveying some unspoken communication that she couldn’t hope to understand.

She wished they would just say everything out loud. Maybe then she would stop blushing as red as her hair whenever Ren gave her a particularly knowing look or Nora gave a passing not-so-subtle comment.

Fame was something Jaune had always hoped to have. But now that he had it, he didn’t really know what to do. And holy crap, he didn’t know how Pyrrha dealt with this all the time.

Pyrrha had offered to take the questions, and Jaune could’ve passed out from relief then and there. Right before they went on stage, in a fit of panic he grabbed her hand. She paused as if surprised, but she hadn’t pulled away yet.

The stage lights were bright overhead, and this suit was too small and too hot, and there were cameras and eyes everywhere. Every place he looked, there was a pair of eyes watching, or a lens recording. But she was sitting by his side, smiling serenely and answering every question with poise, and he had never been more grateful.

His hands were clenched: One on the fake leather armrest, and one on Pyrrha’s hand. He was sure that his hand must be sweaty and gross and he was probably crushing her hand, but she never complained. When the perky interviewer behind the desk turned on him, he wished more than anything that he at least was able to pretend he was calm.

“So, Jaune Arc,” an interviewer started, flashing him a winning smile. “Your name is short, sweet, rolls off the tongue. Ladies love it.” Oh heck, he knew where this was going. He shifted in his seat, suddenly uncomfortable. “It’s becoming a catchphrase. How do you feel about coining it?”

Oh how he longed to say that he’d failed with that dumb line every time he’d used it.

What was he supposed to say? What if he answered wrong? Was he taking too long to answer? Was it getting hotter in here all of a sudden? The lights were too bright, and his tie was choking him, and-

-Pyrrha’s thumb rubbed a calming circle into the back of his hand. She was holding his hand, and Jaune could practically feel his anxiety draining away. He took in a shuddering breath, and let it out slowly.

“Well,” he answered, grinning sheepishly and thanking any god that might be listening that his voice sounded steady, “I didn’t even expect to get this far.”

The interviewer laughed, and Jaune took that as a win. His breathing was still too fast, and the lights were still too bright, but Pyrrha was still holding his hand. And that was an even bigger win.

He squeezed it, and hoped that the one squeeze conveyed all the thanks he couldn’t put into words on air or even at all.

Jaune would be lying if he said he didn’t blush when she squeezed it back.

Fan girls were rabid at the best of times, and this wasn’t even the best of anything.

Pyrrha had sadly grown far too used to the wiles of her peers. But Jaune...he clearly had no clue how he was supposed to react.

They were leaving some event, she couldn’t remember the name of it if she tried, and Pyrrha at least wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep. Based on the meandering stroll and bleary eyed gaze that Jaune had, he was thinking along the same lines as she was.

If the ground beneath her feet wasn’t concrete, she would’ve removed her heels as soon as she was out of the building. Jaune offered half-heartedly to carry her, but she declined. He was more tired than she was, and Pyrrha was pretty sure that if he went down, he would be staying down.

It was in this haze of exhaustion that had the duo crossing paths with a gaggle of girls, all clutching a copy of the most recent magazine they’d done a shoot for. And Pyrrha, who was only slightly more conscious than Jaune, noticed that they were eyeing him. Like a pack of hyenas in mini-skirts and lipstick.

“Jaune Arc!” one of them called, and when he looked up at the sound of his own name the girls looked delighted. “It is him, I told you it was,” the same girl muttered to her friend.

“Yeah I didn’t say you were wrong, Tabby.”

“Shut up, Heather,” the first girl hissed under her breath as she sidled up to the frankly bewildered looking Jaune. She was very pretty, Pyrrha noticed, in a sharp kind of way. “So Jaune,” Tabby said, stepping closer than was really necessary, “you doing anything later?”

“Oh! I uh…” He backed up a step, putting at least a little distance between him and Tabby. “I was planning on just going home? To sleep? Going home to sleep?” he replied, voice rising in pitch and cracking on the final words when Tabby stepped even closer than she’d been before.

They were almost standing chest to chest now. “Need some company?” Tabby grinned, grabbing at one of his hands which he snatched away from her. He backed away another step and yelped when he found that the other girls had circled around behind him. Cutting off any possible escape route and effectively cutting him off from any sort of rescue. “You know,” Tabby purred, finally succeeding in trapping one of Jaune’s hands in her own, “You’re even cuter in person.”

Okay. That was it. Over the freaking line.

Jaune’s eyes widened in panic and he sent a Pyrrha a glance, but she was already moving. She sidled past two of the girls and prised Tabby’s hand from his, and then enclosed it in one of hers. “So sorry about that, but we really need to go” Pyrrha said brightly, giving Tabby a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. Pyrrha was taller than the other girl, and for once it gave her no small amount of delight that she was of above average height.

Pyrrha felt Jaune start to relax as soon as the other girl’s hands were off him. “Need to go? With you?” Tabby questioned, looking sceptical. “Why would he be going anywhere with you?”

She flushed, and felt Jaune’s hand tighten on hers. Pyrrha hadn’t really thought this far ahead, but she’d had to do something. “Because…” She cast about for a reason, something that would make these girls back off and that would protect Jaune from any further harassment. “Because he’s my boyfriend.”

And then she put her free hand on the side of his face and pulled him into a kiss. It wasn’t a long kiss, and for a second when he stiffened in shock she was worried she’d done the wrong thing. She’d gone too far, and now their tentative friendship would be over, and she’d never see that brilliant smile of his again.

But then his eyes slid closed and he began kissing back. Whatever train of thought Pyrrha had been following up until this point promptly left the station without her.

It was a short kiss, but she was already breathless when they pulled apart. Jaune didn’t seem to know where he was, but when she squeezed his hand, he returned the squeeze reassuringly. So she hadn’t shorted out his brain at least, so that was a good thing.

It was only after she pulled him from the gaggle of girls that she noticed the cameras of the paparazzi pointed towards them and flashing away. Pyrrha flushed red, and waved sheepishly at them, flashing her best camera-smile. The reporters were shooting her with questions now. “How long have you been dating?” “Where did you meet?” “Why didn’t you tell anyone?”

She was still holding Jaune’s hand, and she’d kissed him, and gosh darn it why did she insist on making her life more complicated. Now the paparazzi thought she and Jaune were dating, and as complicated as that would make her life, one glance at the dazed but ecstatic smile Jaune had plastered across his face made it all worth it.

When Jaune stumbled into the cafe looking dazed and blushing like there was no tomorrow, Ren had immediately assumed the worst. This was not the first time Jaune wished Nora was on shift, because his emotions were volatile and confusing to him at the best of times, and now he didn’t have Nora to help him unravel them.

Not that he didn’t appreciate the solid unshakableness that Ren brought to the table, but Nora’s manic energy usually helped to make him realize that he was blowing things out of proportion.

The hot chocolate with multiple marshmallows Ren brought along with him when he sat down didn’t hurt though.

Ren watched as Jaune clutched the mug with both hands, looking like he was anchoring himself to the world. He had no doubt that his friend was in this state because of Pyrrha, the girl that Jaune “totally did not have a crush on.”

“So I uh...” Jaune started, not meeting Ren’s eyes. His gaze was locked on his cocoa, as if all the answers to life’s questions were hidden under the layer of foam. “I- We- Pyrrha, she just…” He ran one hand through his hair, making it stand even more on end than normal.

“What did she do?” Ren prompted, barely restraining the amusement from his voice. Jaune shook his head in disbelief, and finally tore his gaze away from his mug. His eyes were wide, with something approaching awe filling his expression.

“She kissed me Ren!” he almost whispered, as though afraid if he said the words too loudly, they would be stolen from him. “Pyrrha she- she just went and kissed me! Like on the mouth!” And Jaune’s face flushed beet red to the roots of his hair, even as the most delighted grin split his face from ear to ear.

Ren had never more dearly wished that Nora was working.

So now they were fake dating. Was that a thing? Was it possible to fake date someone? Jaune told himself that it was, because there was no way that Pyrrha would ever date him outside of whatever this is that they had.

Because they had to keep up the charade. The media had gotten ahold of it, and they just weren’t going to let it go. Jaune and Pyrrha spent almost every second together at the studio, just in case there was a camera watching. The kissing thing kept happening, and Jaune wasn’t too proud to say that it was still confusing the heck out of him.

Because it was good, the kissing thing, and he didn’t understand that.

Ren and Nora were no help at all. Ren had filled in Nora on their little conversation, and she’d demanded every little detail he could think of. He’d given her all the answers he could, but it was like his memory had short-circuited. One minute that other girl was too close and was holding his hand in a vice grip, and the next thing he knew, Pyrrha had that same hand in hers, and her lips were on his.

And holy crap. It was like a bolt of lightning. Every nerve ending had shot signals up his spine, and suddenly he knew what it was to be alive. Even just repeating the events back to Nora was enough to make his face heat up in a blush. Because now he’d realized what Pyrrha had probably known for months.

He had a crush on her.

The photographers were no help either, because they kept making them do couples pictures. “It’s better to use actual couples for these,” one had explained, “because then the emotions are much more genuine.”

Much more genuine, Jaune had mouthed back when the woman had said that. Pyrrha had flushed almost as red as her hair, and they’d had trouble meeting each others eyes for the next ten minutes.

Pyrrha thought that maybe they might be taking this too seriously when they started kissing when there couldn’t possibly be a camera around.

They’d meet up for lunch and hold hands under the table and then they’d kiss before they’d separate. There would be no feasible that there could be a camera around, and she’d say something like, “But what if there is, and they see us together, and it’s been like a half hour since we last kissed.”

And he’d look delighted and reply with, “Shit, good thinking Pyrrha!” These kisses were longer than the first one, but just as intoxicating. Pyrrha could hardly stop blushing these days.

He’d see her in between their separate shoots and he’d run over to hug her and give her a peck on the cheek. She’d caught him in the cafe he still didn’t know they both frequented relaying “cute things Pyrrha has said” at a million miles an hour, and then smiling wide enough to split his face in two when he caught her watching him.

Jaune bought her earrings once, and just shrugged them off. “They match your eyes,” he said with a casual tone that did not match the blush spreading across his cheeks. But they weren’t dating. They were just doing this in case one of the cameras happened to be pointing their way. They weren’t dating, no matter how much evidence there was to the contrary.

It all came to a head when Ren and Nora invited them both to dinner.

All through dinner they kept up what could barely be called a charade at this point. Ren and Nora kept giving each other those knowing looks that Jaune still didn’t understand. When they’d moved away from the dining table into the living room for a movie, Pyrrha practically sat in Jaune’s lap.

About halfway through whatever movie they were watching that Jaune hadn’t been paying attention to because holy crap she’s so close, and her hair is so soft, and holy crap, Nora had finally had enough. “Okay what the fuck you guys,” she started, rounding on the two of them. Jaune paused from where he’d been absent-mindedly combing his fingers through her hair, and Pyrrha looked remarkably like a deer caught in the headlights. “What the hell are you two doing?”

“Oh! Well the media a few months ago-”

“This is my family’s estate,” Ren interrupted, pausing the movie and looking skeptically over at the pair of them. “No one else is here, so why do you really keep being affectionate with each other?”

Jaune froze, and he felt Pyrrha do the same. There were no cameras around, so why were they really acting like this? Jaune couldn’t explain why, but it just felt right sitting here with her in his arms. All of Pyrrha’s carefully formulated excuses crumbled away under the weight of Ren’s understanding eyes and Nora’s mischievous grin.

The same thought crossed both their minds at that moment, “Oh shit are we dating?” They both glanced at each other, and her too-beautiful eyes and his too-bright smile suddenly made sense. They both flushed scarlet, Pyrrha buried her face in her hands, and Jaune protested loudly when Nora began cackling with laughter.

They’d set this up! Pyrrha realized. The two of them had set up this entire night just to have this moment happen. But maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, she thought, glancing at Jaune.

He was using his hands a lot while talking, waving them around in the air even as he was rapidly running out of excuses to make. Then Pyrrha took one of his flailing hands in hers, and he stuttered to a halt. With that soft smile that she reserved just for him, he realized what those knowing looks had always been about.

Jaune Arc was dating Pyrrha Nikos.

And god dammit if that wasn’t the best thing to happen to him all year.