Common Interest

"Hey Scarlatina!" She jumped in fear when she recognized his voice, she really didn't need this today.

Turning around, Velvet saw the face of Cardin Winchester and immediately scowled. "What do you want now? I'm a little busy here."

Under normal circumstances Cardin would have reveled in the expression on her face. But after what happened in Forever Fall the look that Velvet gave him only made him feel guilt and disgust.

He sighed. "I wanted to say that I'm sorry for what me and my team have done to you. You didn't deserve that."

Velvet still held her look of hatred. "Why would you ever feel sorry for what you've done?" Cardin looked away from her, unable to match her gaze.

"I understand that you wouldn't believe me, but it's true. You know that Jaune kid?" She nodded.

"He managed to show me the wrongs that I've done so far, made me realize how cruel I've been. So I decided to at least 'try' to make up for it. The rest of my team as well, they were only following my orders."

Velvet looked away from the brute to see the blonde in question, he was smiling happily with his friends.

"You can ask him if you don't believe me, I truly am sorry."

As Cardin began walking away from the small Faunus girl, he noticed a student in a green hoodie with black hair sitting with his friends.

"Hey you! 'Ayah' kid!" He called out. The guy jolted upright and jumped onto his table. "AAAAAYAH!" He screamed as he bolted out of the cafeteria.

Cardin followed in a chase. "Get back here, I need to apologize!"

Velvet ignored Cardin as she began walking over towards Jaune's table with her tray in hand.

"And so I says to him, I says-" "Excuse me." Velvet spoke as everyone at the table turned to look at her. "Hmm?" Jaune mused as he saw who interrupted him.

"Oh, hello. Can I help you?" Jaune stared at Velvet with a gaze that bore into her very soul. She nervously gulped before answering.

"You're Jaune, right? Jaune Arc?" He nodded. "Is it alright if I sit here?"

He gave her a confused look but shuffled to the side to give her some room. "By all means."

Yang instantly took a shot. "Well well well, Lady Killer, never knew you had it in you!" Jaune and Velvet both blushed immediately.

Ignoring the crude joke, Velvet decided to introduce herself. "My name is Velvet Scarlatina, we've never met but Cardin apologized for being a bully earlier and told me it was because of you, Jaune. I felt like I should thank you accordingly."

Jaune was fairly shocked by this. "You don't need to thank me, I didn't really do anything anyway." Team RWBY was surprised as well. "Wait, it's because of Jaune that Cardin's stopped being such a degenerate? When did this happen?" Weiss asked, incapable of believing Jaune could achieve such a feet.

Pyrrha spoke up. "Don't you remember what happened in Forever Fall? When Jaune did you-know-what...?" Weiss understood right away. Yang wasn't quite through though. "So Jaune does something noteworthy in the woods and now he's got girls following him around? Not bad, I can only imagine what he did."

Jaune was beginning to blush harder. "It wasn't that impressive, I just protected Cardin from an Ursa Major, that's all."

The room fell silent.

As it turns out, the entire cafeteria was listening in on the conversation at their table. "No freaking way!" Screamed one black silhouette. "I don't believe it!" Yelled another.

No one thought that Jaune was capable of performing such an act, the resident Goofball? Hardly. "I know it seems hard to believe," Pyrrha started. "But it's true, Ruby and Weiss can vouch for him as well."

Despite the looks of shock everyone showed, none could compare to the look on Yang's face. "Jaune, you single handedly took out an Ursa Major, while protecting Cardin, your bully, at the same time...?"

Jaune was getting very nervous. "Uuhh, y-yes?" Jaune didn't know what to expect from the blonde brawler, but what happened next was most certainly 'not' in his lexicon of reactions.

Yang stood up and walked away. She didn't even utter a word, she simply left the room, not even passing a glance behind her. "Well, that was awkward." Jaune said, unsure of how to bring the mood back to normal.

"So... Velvet, was it? Where's the rest of your team?" Velvet turned her head away from the exit that Yang had taken and looked at Jaune. "They like to get in some early practice every morning. I'm a rabbit Faunus, so I've got to eat more than them, that's why I always go to breakfast alone."

It was only at that point that Jaune had really taken a look at the girls tray. She had what looked like a five course meal stacked on top of each other. Compared to his measly little sandwich, he felt pretty emasculated.

"I see... wait, you always eat breakfast alone?" She nodded. "Well that's not right! From now on you're eating with us." Velvet looked very surprised by his outburst, but smiled nonetheless. "I think I'd like that."

Yang felt like she was floating.

Understandable when you're falling toward the sky at terminal velocity. But such a risk is necessary when you enter the Emerald Forest from Beacon Cliffs.

She could have taken the stairs, but that would have taken too long, it was a school day and she didn't want to spend the whole day in the woods.

There aren't as many Ursa in the Emerald Forest as there are in Forever Fall, but Yang was determined to find an Ursa Major and kill it before the day was done.

"I'm not gonna let Vomit Boy outshine me, I will have a Major's head on a spike when I'm done here." It would clearly be a long day.

"Welcome to class everyone, I do hope you've had a good nights sleep. Now then who is willing to contribute to class today, hmm?!"

The ever welcoming voice of the good Professor Oobleck reached the ears of all the students in his History class. No one was very pleased.

As the teacher scanned over the room, his eyes spotted one Jaune Arc sitting next to Velvet Scarlatina, they were chatting amicably. It warmed his heart to see Humans and Faunus so easily being friends together.

He wouldn't have felt so warm had he listened in on their conversation. "Once he takes a sip out of his mug, just try to follow him, see if you can pin-point where he's gonna stop too. My team and I play this game all the time. It's sooo much fun."

Velvet wasn't so sure. "I don't know, that seems a little rude..." Jaune only smiled wider. "Trust me he'll never notice, it's hilarious."

She decided to go along with it and the two began the game of champions: 'Catch the Oobleck'.

She found that Jaune was right, the game was ridiculously fun. "The right corner of the room." She whispered.

FWHOOSH!

"Now, who can tell me the date of the beginning of the Great War?" He was in front of his desk. "Nope." Jaune said, a huge grin on his face. "The 'left' corner of the room."

FWHOOSH!

"Ahh, you, over in the back." He materialized in the far left corner of the room and pointed to a silhouette in the back of the rows.

"Ugh, how are you so good at this?" Jaune grinned. "Practice. Like I said, my team and I play it all the time. I've never lost." Velvet stared disbelievingly.

"You've lost at least once." Jaune gave her a look of mock hurt. "Why Velvet, I'm shocked to think you have such little faith in my ability. That hurts." Velvet smiled back. "Good."

The two laughed to themselves for the rest of the period.

GROOOOAAAARRR!

'Finally' Yang thought as she stood on a pile of Ursa. A large black bear crept into the clearing and looked towards Yang with malicious intent, hoping to strike fear into it's prey.

It had large porcupine like spikes protruding from it's back and it stood at twice the size of the other Ursa that now lay dead.

"An Ursa Major... you're mine." She smashed her fists together and erupted into flames, turning super saiyan. The Major was the one to feel fear at that point.

Lunch had fallen on Beacon academy and the group sat at their usual table. Yang was still missing so Velvet had taken her spot next to Weiss.

Nora was regaling the group with a stunning story of one of her dreams, Ren doing his solemn duty of adding points she had forgotten along the way.

Jaune was doing his best to ignore her, ever since the day had started there was something else that took his interest, something he simply couldn't keep his mind off of.

Velvet.

To say she was stunning would be an understatement. He couldn't take his eyes off her. Whenever she smiled Jaune felt warmer than he ever had in his life, he loved the feeling.

Jaune wasn't very well versed when it came to social situations, but he figured that he was already developing feelings for the girl.

He needed to stop. 'I can't feel this way about her, we've only just met. Besides, she's way out of my league anyway.'

Velvet noticed Jaune's shift in mood and was rather confused by it. "Jaune are you alright? You seem a little... off." When Jaune stopped hearing any conversation he looked up and saw that everyone was staring at him.

"What's going on? I blanked out for a second there." Everybody looked between each other with similar looks of worry. Velvet was about to speak up again when the door to the cafeteria suddenly burst open.

Yang walked in battered and bruised with her head held high. She made a beeline directly towards the table and walked up to Jaune. "I have a present for you."

Jaune couldn't speak when Yang suddenly held out her hand and dropped something into his lap. Looking down, Jaune paled in shock at what was looking back.

The bleeding head of an Ursa Major.

"I beat one on my own now too, Vomit Boy. We're even." Jaune was still stuck staring. "I think I'm gonna be sick." Everybody else was staring at Yang in shock, they could easily believe that the brawler would be able to take a Major on her own, but they weren't expecting her to have done so within the last few hours.

"Well then, I'm very impressed Yang, congratulations." Jaune then picked the head out of his lap and handed it back to her. "H-here, this is yours."

Yang shook her head. "Oh no, you keep it as a reminder that I can take one too." She then left the cafeteria and headed back to her room to get changed.

The entire group stared on in confusion and Velvet was the first to speak. "I don't know her very well... does she always act like that?" Silent, shaking heads was her only reply.

"Let's just forget that happened." Jaune stated as he stood up and put the creatures head into the closest trash can. "Agreed." The group replied in unison.

Jaune decided that moping around over the fact that Velvet wouldn't like him would do no good. She may not want to go out with him, but Velvet is certainly willing to be his friend. That would be more than enough for him.

"So, what were we talking about again?" Jaune asked, Velvet spoke up. "I don't actually remember..." The group looked between themselves in confusion and before they knew it the bell rang.

"Right, well then. Let's just go to class." Everybody left without a word.

Velvet caught herself staring again. Ever since she met him, Velvet had been staring at Jaune whenever she was sure he wouldn't notice. 'You've got to stop that Velvet, there's no way he could like you that way. Not someone like him, he's way out of your league.'

Her eyes drifted towards him again and she found herself staring, she simply couldn't look away. He wasn't overly handsome, but his hair shone with the golden light of dawn and she could easily drown in his blue, ocean eyes.

It's also a personality that shapes how attractive people are and he may be goofy, but he's certainly kinder than any other guy she's met. He shows so much generosity to people he's never met, don't even get her started on how he treats his friends.

"Stop staring!" She whispered to herself. "What was that?" Jaune asked. "Oh, you heard that? Umm, I said... get your bearings. Yeah, get your bearings Jaune, class is almost over. We need to go." Jaune was confused, but nodded nonetheless and packed up to leave.

The second Jaune's book entered his bag the bell for the end of day rang. "Well that was quick. Say, do you wanna hang out some more? I was thinking of heading to the library for some extra studying, I can see that you're pretty smart so do you want to come with?" Velvet was fairly surprised by this.

"J-just the two of us?" Jaune easily took this the wrong way. "Oh, I see. W-well you can bring someone if you want." Velvet interrupted him before he could continue. "NO! I mean... n-no, just the two of us sounds fine."

The smile that Jaune replied with warmed Velvet to her very core. "Then let's go."

"Okay, seriously how the hell are you so damned smart?" Jaune asked Velvet for what felt like the hundredth time that hour.

Velvet giggled with her reply. "I'm not that smart Jaune, I just pay attention in class, I don't waste my time playing guessing games."

Jaune looked mildly offended. "I don't play guessing games, my dear Velvet. I master them." The two laughed and continued to talk, unaware of the eyes that followed them.

"So... I'm not the only one that sees the two of them have the hots for each other right?" Yang asked the rest of the group.

Blake nodded. "I wonder if they even know it themselves, it could take a while for them to admit it to each other."

"I think they look cute together." Nora said as Jaune blushed after catching himself staring again. Velvet did the same not a minute afterwards.

Pyrrha soon got an idea. "How about we help swerve them in the right direction...? I'd like to see my partner happy."

"I agree with this idea one hundred percent!" Weiss all but screamed, eager to end the blonde's attempts at flirtation.

"It's settled then." Ruby started with pride in her voice. "Operation Velveteen Knight is a go!"

Everybody stared at Ruby in disdain. "Really?" Asked Ren. "That was the best you could come up with?" Ruby turned to look at him in confusion.

"What?"

Jaune and Velvet sat blissfully unaware of the conniving group that hid twenty feet away. They were completely and utterly enthralled by each other.

It could take them a day or it could take them a year, but no matter what. Jaune and Velvet would be the best of friends, they would most certainly stay together.

But not together together.