Ruby's eyes shot open, flooding her vision with the clear and starry sky around her. It wasn't uncommon for the Fall of Beacon to plague her dreams until they forced her awake. Looking around, she saw that Ren and Nora were nearby, both slumbering in their sleeping bags. But the third bag, Jaune's, was empty.

A few weeks ago, she had woken up to the sound of Pyrrha's voice and discovered that he had been playing a training video she'd left him on his scroll when everyone else was asleep, but Ruby couldn't hear her deceased friend's voice tonight. In fact, she didn't hear any of the telltale signs that Jaune was practicing his swordsmanship. Curious, Ruby slipped out of her sleeping bag and began to look for him.

It didn't take a long time searching the area near where they'd made camp to find him. Ruby found Jaune hunched over a log, his back to her. From what she could tell, he wasn't moving at all. She briefly considered announcing herself to him, but the sound of the night breeze rustling through the trees and the crickets singing their song all around the two had a fragile tranquility to it, and she didn't want to break it unnecessarily. Instead, she opted to approach him silently, sliding onto the log and scooching over to huddle up next to him. For quite some time they sat together in silence, neither one needing the other's words to know how the other was feeling.

Eventually, Jaune broke the silence. "Did you know that we kissed?" A short pause, then, "Me and Pyrrha. She kissed me, and then shoved me into a locker and sent me to Vale." His voice was shaking, and though Ruby turned her attention towards him, he kept his gaze fixed on the grass between his feet. "I had been so caught up with Weiss that I didn't realize she felt that way about me until it was too late!" Jaune had begun raising his voice as the ability to hold back the tears slowly faded. Ruby, for her part, tried to console her friend by wrapping an arm around him and resting her head on his shoulder.

"You know she did it to protect you. She couldn't bear the thought of you getting hurt," Ruby offered.

"But that's just it! I was weak!" Jaune sobbed, "If I had been a bit stronger, maybe she wouldn't have tried to save me! Maybe I could have kept her safe!"

Ruby's heart ached at the sound of his desperate reasoning. She responded, "You weren't weak Jaune. No matter how strong you were, Pyrrha would have done the same thing. She knew what she was going up against, and she knew that neither of you would have stood a chance. The things at the top of that tower, Jaune, even if all of us had been there, we would have been wiped out. Pyrrha wanted you to be able to keep living even if she couldn't make it out of there." Tears were beginning to flow from Ruby's eyes now too. She had known Jaune and Pyrrha had been closer ever since the dance, but she hadn't realized that they had could only begin to imagine Jaune's pain, and she held him closer to her. Ruby was there for him now, and she wouldn't stand to see him suffer alone like this.

However, it seemed that Ruby's words opened the floodgates for Jaune. He broke down more, turning to Ruby and pulling her into a tight hug as he bawled into her shoulder. They were a good hundred or so yards from Ren and Nora, but Ruby wasn't entirely sure that they were sleeping through this. Though, all things considered, she didn't really care if they heard. Right now Jaune was letting out all the emotions he'd been bottling up for the past few months, and Ruby wasn't about to try to put a cap back on them. Instead, she returned the hug, wrapping her arms around him and letting her hands rest on his shoulder blades. Together they cried over the loss of their friends, huddled on a log hundreds of miles from home.

Ruby thought back to Yang and her dad, and how she'd just left them without a proper goodbye. She knew she had a good reason, and she knew she had to do it, but she felt horrible for not even letting either of them know that she was leaving. Taiyang had already lost so much already, and Yang hadn't been the same since the night Adam had attacked her. As the regret of her actions seeped into her soul, she started to realize that she wasn't acting as a pillar for Jaune to brace himself on. They were both on the verge of collapsing, and only by leaning on each other were they able to stay standing.

Eventually, the two ran out of tears to shed and they just remained there, quietly sobbing in each other's arms. After some time, Ruby broke the hug and stared into his eyes, intent on saying something to him, but she couldn't come up with the words that she wanted to say. She didn't want to just tell him that everything would be okay, because they both knew that it wouldn't, at least not for a while. She wanted to tell him how much he'd improved over the last few months, but being better now wouldn't bring Pyrrha back. Ruby almost didn't notice that as she searched in his eyes for the words she wanted to say, the space between hers and his was slowly closing until they were mere inches from each other.

Ruby didn't exactly know what happened next. She could recount the events that happened, but as for why they did, she was at a loss. Maybe they were both just lonely and had found someone else just as much in need of companionship that night. Maybe there had always been something between the two that neither of them knew about. Whatever the reason, Ruby found her lips suddenly pressed against Jaune's. She hadn't ever really considered him in a romantic way before, but in that moment it just felt so right. She parted her lips, feeling Jaune do the same, and it wasn't long before their tongues met, peeking out of their respective mouths to explore their partner's.

They deftly slid around each other, taking their time to observe the features of the other's mouth. Ruby felt Jaune slide his tongue over her teeth as she traced the inside of his lip, their breath hot on each other. Ruby's breathing was becoming heavy, and she could tell Jaune's was too. To the best of her knowledge, neither of them had ever gotten as far as they were right now. Jaune perhaps had, but she had a feeling that Pyrrha's goodbye kiss had been much simpler, not much more than a press on the lips.

As they continued to kiss. Ruby took notice of Jaune's hands. They were moving slowly down from her shoulders to her midsection, coming to a rest at her side, just above her waist. She felt a slight twinge of excitement as his hands explored her body, and she, for her part, began to do the same. She traced his fingers along down his back. The hoodie he was known for always wearing was surprisingly thin, and it wasn't difficult for her to feel the patterns of his lats. As she reached the base of his hoodie, she tugged up on it, slowly lifting it up and off of him.

They broke their kiss only for a moment so that it could come completely off of Jaune, and in moments they were back at it with a renewed passion. Jaune had always been surprisingly fit, but ever since the trek through Anima had started, his physique had become downright amazing. Coupled with the newfound determination and confidence he'd shown since they arrived, Ruby was a bit surprised that he hadn't been swarmed by some of the younger townswomen they'd come across in the various villages they'd discovered. Of course, she knew it was all an act, and that deep down inside he was still hurting. He forced himself to put on the tough-guy face because he had to. He was Ren and Nora's leader, and if he gave in to his own misery, then how could he expect them not to?

Ruby removed her thoughts from her mind and began focusing on Jaune's impressive body. She gently grazed her fingers over his defined torso and pressed her body against his. For his part, Jaune was becoming a bit more adventurous in exploring her body. His hands had slowly made their way up and were now cupped just under her breasts. He gently teased her, circling his thumbs right around her nipples.

For a while they held themselves like that; Ruby tracing Jaune's figure while he toyed with her breasts, all while both of them kissed each other with a fiery passion. Jaune was the one to finally break the moment, pulling away from her and asking, "Ruby, are you sure you want this? This is so sudden and everything… I just want you to know I understand if you have… reservations," the words sounded as hopeless and dejected coming out of his mouth as anything he'd said in the last few months that had to do with Beacon's attack.

Ruby responded, "Yeah, I think I do. But are you sure you want this, Jaune? I don't wanna pressure you into something you're not ready for."

Jaune recoiled a bit from her and looked to the ground for a minute, clearly in thought. When the words finally did come to his mouth, they were slow, as if he was still in the middle of processing what he wanted to say. "I… I'm…" He let out an exasperated sigh, "Pyrrha's gone. And as much as I wish that weren't true, it is. I can't just hold out and wait for her to come back, because it just won't happen. I'll always miss her, but she wouldn't want me to wallow in my own misery forever. She'd want me to be happy, no matter what." He chuckled before saying, "Did you know she gave me advice when I was going after Weiss? And good advice too! She wasn't trying to sabotage anything between me and her, though she really didn't need to try," he mumbled the last bit under his breath.

"She just genuinely wanted to see me happy, even if she wasn't the one who could provide that happiness." Jaune very lightly grabbed hold of Ruby's wrists and told her, "I'll probably never truly get over her, and to tell the truth, I don't want to. But I know she would want me to move on; to find someone that I could be happy with. Ruby, right here with you, I feel better than I have since all of this started."

It was a lot for Ruby to take in, but as Jaune bared his heart out for her to see, she quietly listened to each word he said. As he finished, his deep blue eyes met her silver ones, and she was sure he could see the tears forming anew in the corners of her eyes. "Jaune, I…" Now she was at a loss for words, and as she tried to form a coherent thought to say back to Jaune, she saw his face fall as he prepared for the worst. Quickly moving to clarify, she explained, "If you really feel that way, I'd like to at least give this a shot."

Ruby smiled at him, the tears trickling down her cheek as his expression turned from one of heartbreak to relief and a twinge of excitement. "Just...one thing," She sternly added. She felt a bit bad for it, but it was a little funny seeing his face change so rapidly and so often, as he now had a look of worry on his face. "Is it alright if we go back to what we were doing?"

Jaune's response was simple and clear. He nodded and kissed Ruby again, now fidgeting with the corset she wore and attempting to undo the belts holding it up. She helped where she could, and together they unbuckled both straps. Jaune then set to work on loosening her top, and when finally it didn't cling to her figure so much, he lifted it off of her. He next unbuttoned her blouse, and as he did so, she reached lower down on his body, first admiring his abs and then undoing his belt. She slipped it off just as the last button of her blouse came undone, and Jaune placed his hands on her shoulders, helping to slide it off and expose her bare chest.

Ruby had always been a bit self conscious at Beacon; she was never a fan of heading to the showers without something to cover herself up. But right now she felt no anxiety about Jaune seeing her perky breasts, about him reaching for them and cupping them with his calloused hands and giving them a faint squeeze. To Ruby, it just felt right, and she sighed in pleasure as his fingers pressed into her mounds.

However, Ruby wasn't planning on letting him have all of the fun. She reached down to Jaune's jeans, unbuttoning them and yanking the zipper down. With a small flourish, she tugged down on his pants, revealing his polka dotted boxers and, more notably, a sizable tent in his crotch. She looked down at it and her eyes went wide; she'd never actually seen a guy's penis before, and seeing Jaune's thinly veiled boner just reminded her how close she was to something that had always seemed so distant to her since, well, forever.

It wasn't that she was unaware of what sex was, or that she wasn't interested in dating; she'd had the talk before and there had been a few people at both Signal and Beacon that she'd wanted to get a bit closer with. Though between Yang's overprotectiveness and Ruby generally being kinda shy and awkward to the people she had a thing for, simply wanting to get closer was as far as she'd ever really gotten. But Jaune was always just her close friend. As far as she knew, neither of them had any feelings for each other back at Beacon.

Ruby had never thought she would see him like this, but ever since their journey began, she started finding herself more physically attracted to him. And now she had just said she was willing to gives things as chance with him! She still wasn't sure herself if she'd meant she just wanted to see where tonight took them, or if she was ready to try and have a relationship with Jaune. Despite their past, the more she thought about it, the more open to the idea of them dating she became. But once again, Ruby realized she was getting lost in her thoughts and not enjoying the moment. Her hopes and concerns for the future could wait. Right now, she wanted to have some fun with her favorite noodle.

She focused her attention back to his shaft poking at his underwear and she hooked a finger around his waistband, pulling it out towards her and down, finally getting to see his bare cock. It was a little bit redder than him, and it stood proud and straight at attention. A network of veins ran along the underside of his shaft, branching out from a massive trunk near the base of his penis to several small branches near the head. In contrast, the top side was smooth and bare, a perfect cylinder of flesh from his groin to the edges of his flared head if she were to look directly down at it. The head was a bright pink thing, looking like a strange helmet to the inexperienced girl, with a small hole poking out from the top. Just beneath it, the tip separated, leaving a strip of pink skin to connect the two halves.

Ruby was mesmerized. She'd never in all her life have guessed that penises were so amazing, and she felt an insatiable urge to wrap her hand around it and feel every inch of it. She did so a bit gingerly, still apprehensive over how fast everything was happening. Her concerns were quickly being dwarfed by her mad lust though, and as she felt the hot flesh of his cock in her palm, she gave in entirely to temptation.

She shot Jaune a sultry grin, and he gasped in surprise not only at the feeling of her cool hands on his member, but by how suddenly she'd seemed to turn from the innocent and pure Ruby he'd known to the topless girl with a hand on his shaft in front of him. She thought his surprised expression was rather cute, and leaned in for another kiss, locking her lips on his as she began to gently pump his rod. Meanwhile, he'd been getting even more handsy with her breasts, and had begun to lightly pinch and tweak her nipples, causing Ruby to moan into his mouth.

She suddenly understood why everyone seemed to make a big fuss about sex. It felt damn good, She'd always assumed that it would, but she had no idea it was this intense or pleasurable. As the two kissed and fondled each other's bodies, Ruby took notice of just how wet she was getting. With her free hand, she reached down under her skirt and slipped her fingers down her panties, gently gliding across her sopping slit.

A tingle of pleasure shot its way up her spine before she pulled her hand out, her fingers now moist from her own juices. She brought it to Jaune's face, gently stroking his cheek, and she could tell the moment he smelled her fluids by the way his cock twitched in her hands.

Jaune needed no more instruction. Leaving one hand to continue teasing her sensitive nipples, he worked the other down to her crotch, tracing a finger down her petite body. Ruby could tell though that he was approaching unfamiliar territory. She had it easy; there wasn't much to pleasuring his bits other than just running her hand up and down the shaft. Unfortunately for Jaune, a woman's sex was a bit trickier to excite, but Ruby offered a guiding hand, helping him slide his fingers into her womanhood and pressing his thumb against her clitoris.

She let him take control from there, and for someone so inexperienced, he seemed to be doing a pretty good job. Every few seconds his gentle movements would leave Ruby moaning and gasping in his mouth, and his teasing only left her wanting more. It was clear that the feeling was mutual, as after only a few minutes Jaune slowly lowered her onto her back. He scooted forward and soon, Ruby could feel his member poking at her entrance. She wanted nothing more than to feel him inside of her, but before he got a chance to take both their virginities, a thought occurred to Ruby that forced her to interrupt.

"I'm sorry, Jaune. I want this, really, I do." She sputtered, "But we need to be smart about this." For a moment, his only response was a puzzled look. Just as she was about to explain herself, Jaune figured out what Ruby had meant. The two had no form of contraceptive with them. For two teenagers travelling through the Grimm infested countryside of Anima on a quest to track down one of the greatest Evils on Remnant to conceive a child, especially when they had been just friends the previous morning, would be problematic at the very least.

"But," Ruby piped up, "That doesn't mean we have to stop! I was really enjoying that…" she trailed off, sliding a finger along the top of his shaft as she spoke.

"Really?" Jaune responded, sounding more excited than he'd probably intended to.

Ruby giggled and told him "Yeah. Maybe we could even find some other way to do this for now, at least until we get somewhere where we can make sure we're prepared." Jaune thought for a bit, his tool still rubbing against her womanhood every time he shifted a bit. It felt surprisingly good, just having him grind against her like that, and she moaned instinctively. Her partner didn't take long to realize the source of her pleasure, and after sliding her skirt down off of her began to thrust outside of her with purpose, which elevated Ruby's voice from small whimpers of excitement to full on begging for more.

Ruby's breathing became heavier and heavier, and as her chest rose and fell as hard as it would if she'd just finished a battle, Jaune's attention was brought back to her modest breasts. He leaned down and softly kissed one of her nipples, which just sent Ruby into another fit of gasping and moaning. She'd never expected that she could feel this good, much less without even being penetrated!

As amazing as everything already felt, Ruby noticed that there wasn't really much pressure on her sensitive pussy. Sure, Jaune's ribbed erection was grinding against it, but it felt less like it was continuously brushing against her and more like he was just pressing it onto her. She worked to rectify the situation, pressing her palm over his shaft and sandwiching it between her hand and her vagina.

"Try it now," She whispered to Jaune, and immediately following his first thrust, they both let out a long and content moan. It had worked like a charm; Jaune's cock was now actually rubbing against her clit, rather than wildly bumping into her groin. WIth each thrust they both lost a bit more control of their senses, and it wasn't long before Ruby felt a small pressure budding in the pit of her stomach.

She'd never let any of the members of her team know, especially not Yang, but Ruby was not a complete stranger to orgasms. On a few particularly boring days when no one was around, Ruby had found… less than pure ways of entertainment. She could count on one hand the number of times she'd flicked the bean when she and her sister lived at home, but ever since Ruby discovered Blake's collection of the Ninja's of Love series, she'd found herself much more open to the thought of having some personal time when she had the rare opportunity to be alone in her room. So when she felt the onset of an orgasm welling up within her, she knew she had to make sure that Jaune kept the pace he was at.

Using her free hand, she pressed his face against her breast and said, "By the Gods, keep it just like that Jaune! That feels so amazing!" Thankfully, he did as he was told, and Ruby felt the pit in her stomach slowly move outward. Soon, her entire womanhood was aching for the chance to finally release, and Ruby had no plans on keeping it waiting. "Jaune, I'm gonna… oh Gods I'm gonna cum!" She saw his deep blue eyes go wide in surprise, and then saw nothing but the night sky as her own eyes rolled back nearly into her skull.

Ruby had never experienced an orgasm quite this intense before. One moment she could feel it coming, and the next she had all but lost control of her body. The first thing she noticed was her walls tightening in on themselves as fluids gushed into her slit and began leaking out. She felt a bit bad, both for Jaune and herself, that neither one of them had gotten to experience the feeling of that happening while his member was inside her. However, that was far from all that rushed through her as the orgasm spread waves of pleasure through her body.

Nearly every muscle she had tightened up, and she started shaking and shuddering underneath Jaune. Her voice went wild too, and she cried out much louder than she probably should Ren and Nora hadn't been woken up by the two earlier, they likely were by that she minded too much; she was in too much a state of bliss to care. As her shaking died down, Ruby let out a contented and tired sigh and nearly went limp. She was still receptive to Jaune's thrusts, as evidenced by her continued gasps and moans with each push he made, and she was able to keep her hand pressed against Jaune's member, but for nearly half a minute after she came down from the euphoric sensation of her climax her eyes took on a glazed over look as her body worked to return her to her senses.

Jaune finally pried himself away from sucking on Ruby's nipple to press his lips against her own after hearing her orgasmic cries of delight. He continued to grind against her, but she could feel him tensing up as he thrust against her. She broke from the kiss, and asked him with an excited but trepidacious look in her eyes, "Jaune?Could you cum… on… me?" She may not be able to have it inside her, but Ruby wanted to know what his spunk felt like, and what better way than by letting him spray it all over her?

Jaune stared at her incredulously, but his face quickly changed to one of joy and anticipation. He leaned back until his back was straight, allowing the head of his cock to point slightly up in the air at the deepest part of his thrusts. He continued like this for a while, groaning with more and more intensity until finally he let out a long sigh of ecstatic relief, coinciding perfectly with a large glob of sperm launching its way out of his shaft and splattering on Ruby just above her belly. She was surprised by how hot it felt on her skin, but nevertheless decided almost immediately that she quite enjoyed the feeling of his spunk on her body.

The next spurt shot with nearly twice the force, and Ruby flinched as she felt a bit of his cum land on her cheek. The third shot was less powerful, but still more so than the first, and it tagged the underside of one of her breasts with his seed. A few more ropes of cum made their way out of him, losing intensity with each time. By the time his orgasm had ended, Ruby's stomach had a fair bit of his jizz on it. With him finally being done, Jaune collapsed to the ground next to her, exhausted but very clearly pleased with himself, if the comically wide smile on his face was anything to go off of.

Ruby turned to face him and returned the smile. Just this morning, even an hour ago, they'd just been friends, but now they were quite obviously something more. Despite the rather sudden nature of everything, Ruby had no misgivings about the advancement of their relationship. Even if she hadn't realized it until they were in each other's arms, she definitely felt something for Jaune, and was actually rather excited to try having a relationship with him. Granted, they may get some teasing from Ren and Nora, and if what had happened tonight was going to become a regular occurrence they may want to find a quieter way of doing it, but all things considered, Ruby was happy with this turn of events.

She caught Jaune staring at her cheek with a strange look of content and amusement, and it was then that Ruby remembered that her body was still marked with Jaune's cum all over it. Now that it had been on her for a bit, it didn't seem as hot, and where the contours of her body allowed it, the semen was slowly starting to drip down her side, leaving a sticky and slimy trail in its wake. It felt strangely nice, his seed on her, and she was reluctant to wipe it off, instead preferring to let it stay while she lay on the ground recovering from what had been a surprisingly intense session of not-quite-sex.

One thing was still on Ruby's mind though, and she couldn't truly rest until her curiosity had been sated. Using her index finger, she wiped the jizz off of her cheek and plopped it into her mouth, making a bit of a show of it for Jaune. She wasn't sure what to expect, so when his spunk hit her tongue, her eyes went wide in surprise. Ninjas of Love would have her believe it was as sweet as Jaune, and some of the gossip she'd heard from the more promiscuous girls at Beacon had left her fearing it would have a bitter and almost sour flavor to it, but in truth it was mostly salty, with a hint of some kind of strange taste that she could only describe as masculine. While it was no chocolate chip cookie, it still tasted rather good.

Jaune's eyes went wide in surprise at the sight of Ruby getting a taste of his cum, and as she swallowed it down, he leaned in to kiss her. They shared a long and tender kiss, both too tired for the passionate and lust-filled snogging they'd been up to earlier. This time, Ruby was happy to gently suck on his upper lip as he wound his arm around her head and cradled her up to him. The two stayed like this or quite a while, allowing themselves to enjoy the feeling of their bodies against each other as the forest around them played a song they'd become accustomed to every night ever since they'd reached Anima.

Eventually, however, they realized they should get cleaned up and head back to bed. Falling asleep naked on the forest floor was not how either of them wanted to spend their night. Reluctantly, Ruby separated from Jaune and the two grabbed their clothes before heading over to the small pond they'd decided to camp by. They quickly washed off the bits of dirt and grass that had become attached to their backsides, making small talk about how different the forest here was compared to the ones near Vale. Ruby made sure to wash Jaune's seed off of her. It had begun drying onto her, and while she loved the thought of having such an intimate part of him plastered over her body, it had to go. Finally satisfied they were clean, the two redressed themselves and finally went back to bed.

As she crawled back into her sleeping back, Ruby heard Jaune whisper, "Hey Ruby?"

"Yeah?" She responded.

"Thanks. I felt happier than I have in a long time and, if you feel the same, I want to try to make this work." She looked back and saw that Jaune was smiling at her. Not his usual doofy smile that he would flash whenever he found himself the brunt of a joke, but one of genuine contentedness. She returned the look and told him, "I'd like that too. Good night Jaune."

"Good night, Ruby."

A/N: At the suggestion of multiple reviews, I broke up the paragraphs quite a bit more, so hopefully it looks less like a wall of text. If you have any feedback you'd like to give, please please please leave a review! I may be doing something stupid without even realizing it and it's your guys' input that helps me improve as a writer!