The news was all over the school by the time Jaune got out of his shower.

It had been a normal day. Port had bored them all with his overly dramatic stories. Oobleck had lost them all in a frenzy of energetic rambling. Peach had continued to inanely babble on a seemingly endless series of topics that were - apparently - supposed to connect in some meaning to way to form a lesson. And Goodwitch had put them through the ringer in combat class.

Pyrrha and Yang had, had a particularly explosive bout against each other with Pyrrha pulling out a narrow victory at the cost of a deep burn to her face from Yang's flaming hair. Ruby had run circles around Nora - literally. Ren had traded blows with Blake for nearly fifteen minutes before succumbing to their drawn out war of attrition. And Jaune Arc, miraculously, pulled out a surprising win against Sky Lark via a well placed kick to the knee.

After the bouts, they'd retired to the lockers for some good old fashioned ribbing. Ren had taken the teasings at his loss to Blake with gentle grace, and Cardin had even congratulated Jaune on a job well done. Jaune's win/loss ratio was still atrocious - easily the worst in the class - but gone were the days of being the class punching bag. Now at least he stood a chance.

However, Jaune Arc's arena statistics had long ago stopped being of any interest to the student body. At first, when he'd lost a record breaking thirty-seven matches in a row, it had been all anyone seemed to talk about. Now, they'd grown bored of it. Particularly when he started winning every so often. That said, Jaune could apparently still manage to turn heads for, if Cardin Winchester was to be believed, the clutzy leader of Team JNPR had gone and gotten himself a tattoo.

There were those who dismissed the rumor at face value. Jaune Arc had gotten a tattoo? Jaune Arc the dunce? Jaune Arc the moron? Jaune 'Vomit Boy' Arc? That Jaune Arc had willingly submitted himself to prolonged pain and permanent marking? Coco Adel had, in fact, laughed uproariously when it had reached her ears.

Still, the rumor persisted, filtering through the school in a matter of fifteen minutes. By the time Jaune finished drying his hair, there wasn't a single student in the school that hadn't heard the rumor.

However, if Jaune noticed the multitude of curious stairs being leveled at him from all angles as he whistled his way out of the lockers, he certainly didn't question them. If Coco has seen him, she would have laughed all the louder. Jaune Arc the oblivious? Get a tattoo? Sure.

"What do you think it is?" Ruby asked eagerly, her head dangling off the side of her bed as she kicked lightly at the wall. It was a common habit that Weiss had tried and failed to break her of. The neighbors probably hated them.

"'I love mom'?" Yang snorted from her prone position on her own bed, sticking her hands up into the air to deliver some well-timed air-quotes. Ruby giggled in response. Yang smirked. "Where do you think it is?

"Cardin said it was on his arm," Weiss said in a bored tone. She had sat herself in the desk chair, having borrowed the standing mirror from the bathroom to brush her hair.

"I heard it was on his hand!" Ruby cried.

Weiss sighed. "Ruby," she said slowly, "we saw Jaune's hands while he was fighting. He didn't have a tattoo there."

"Well, what do you think it is, Weiss?" Ruby pressed, seemingly unperturbed by Weiss' disinterest. No change there.

Weiss gave a very unlady like snort. "I'm sure the idiot doesn't have a tattoo at all. He'd probably faint."

Ruby groaned, rolling over so that she was on her stomach and her arms hung down from the bed, flailing uselessly. "That's boring!"

Yang snickered. "Maybe he got Weiss' face."

Weiss turned sharply around in her seat. "Do not even joke about that!" she snapped.

Yang only laughed louder. "Great big Weiss face all over his back."

Weiss clenched her hand so tightly around the handle of her brush that Ruby thought it would snap. The normally snow-colored Heiress was rapidly turning red.

"He didn't get Weiss' face," Blake said in an even more bored tone than Weiss had, seemingly trying to appease the heiress. She was sprawled out across her own bed, leaning her back against the wall as her eyes traced over the words of her newest book. "And it's on his chest."

"I did hear Ren mention that to Nora," Yang conceded. "He'd probably know."

"Awwwwwwe," Ruby whined petulantly. "I was hoping it was on his butt!"

"I'll thank you not to put that image in my head, Ruby," Weiss groused, having returned to the work of brushing her hair.

Yang twisted, folding her torso over the side of the bed. Her head lolled, covered completely by the curtain of bright, yellow hair she was so proud of as she took in her partner. "What do you think Vomit Boy's tattoo is, Blakey?" she teased.

Blake, still not looking up from her book, smirked. "I wouldn't want to rob you of your fun by telling you, Yang."

Yang squinted. "You say that like you know for sure what he got."

Blake blinked, lifting her eyes from her book momentarily to give Yang a look that suggested she thought her partner was dense. "Of course I know what he got."

It was Yang's turn to blink now, pure confusion passing over her face. She opened her mouth, a hundred questions on her lips, but her train of thought was derailed by a rapid series of knocks on their door. Yang had time enough to watch Blake's eyes flit to the clock, flit back to her book and wince before the blonde bombshell somersaulted off of the bed.

"I got it!" she cried, crossing the room in three easy steps and wrenching the door open. Outside, his fist poised to knock again on a door that had suddenly opened was just the boy they'd been talking about and just the boy she wanted to see.

"Jaune!" she cried welcomingly.

"Hey Ya-AWH!" Jaune cried as Yang gripped tightly to the folds of his hoodie and hoisted him into the room, nearly pulling him off his feet in the process.

"Well, come on!" Yang promoted encouragingly, a teasing smile on her lips. "Show it to us!"

Ruby squealed lightly as Weiss sighed. Blake flipped a page in her book.

Jaune eyes her warily. "Show you what?"

"You're tattoo!" Ruby cried eagerly.

Jaune blanched. "H-how did you-?"

"It's all over the school, Jaune," Blake looked up at him in amusement.

Jaune met her gaze, blinking stupidly. "It is?" he asked dumbly. "How?"

"Cardin Winchester," Weiss informed him dryly. "In the locker rooms."

"Why was Cardin looking at me in the locker room?" Jaune muttered.

Yang shrugged. "Hell, if I know." She smirked, running her eyes over the boy. "Not like there's much to look at."

Jaune glared lightly at her.

"Yang," Blake admonished with rather more emotion in her voice than normal, "be nice."

"What!?" Yang exclaimed innocently, fooling no one. She had never been as good at adorable innocence as Ruby.

"Come on, I wanna see it!" Ruby cried impatiently. "I wanna see it! What is it? Where is it!?"

"I-it's on my chest," Jaune stuttered, taken aback by her enthusiasm.

"Score one for Blake," Yang commented, passing a confused glance over her partner only to be met by an even more confused one in return. Yang squinted but shook it off, returning her attention to Jaune. "Come on then, lady killer. It's nothing we haven't seen before."

"Excuse me!" Blake piped up.

Yang waved her off. "Close your eyes if you don't want to see it!"

"That's not what I –"

"It's fine, Blake," Jaune sighed, already gripping at the hem of his shirt. "They're not going to let it go until I show them."

"Please don't speak for me," Weiss snarked. "I'm completely uninterested."

"Just shut up and gawk, I've Queen," Yang rolled her eyes as Jaune lifted his shirt.

Weiss squawked in protest. "I do not gaw –" Whatever Weiss had been about to say was cut off as she did indeed gawk.

Jaune was...hot. There was no other way to say it. Gone was the noodly, soft boy that had arrived at Beacon on the back of stolen transcripts and a dream. This Jaune was dedicated. He worked hard with his training, both with Pyrrha and without. And it showed in the toned lines of his abs. They were nothing like Sun's, nor would they likely ever be, but they were plenty impressive in their own right. Yang found herself more than willing to let her eyes linger there, if only the curiosity of a tattoo had not drawn them upwards.

And there it was, a simple little thing just above his left pec, all black with just a hint of amber yellow.

"A cat?" Ruby questioned, surprised. Jaune just shrugged.

It was a cat, pure black in color. There were lines of negative space where Jaune's skin shown through to allow for definition on the little creature's limbs, but otherwise, the only color on the animal was a pair of deep, amber eyes that seemed to shine with an almost human intelligence. It was very good work, well worth the Lien it had likely cost them. Still...

"Why a cat?" Yang asked.

Behind Jaune, Weiss continued to stare.

Jaune shrugged, a strange warmth passing over his face as his eyes seemed to drift in a lazy direction. "I like cats."

"Since when?" Yang raised an eyebrow.

Jaune, to her surprise, raised one back at her. He opened his mouth, plenty prepared to answer, only to be cut off.

"You can put your shirt back on, Jaune," Blake told him gently but firmly.

Yang rolled her eyes as Jaune did as she asked. Really, she knew Blake was the quiet, disengaged type but there was nothing wrong with a little looking. And Jaune, for all his dopeyness, had plenty to look at. Yang briefly wondered if the rest of him was as well-defined.

"Uhhh, yeah," Jaune chuckled weakly, scratching at the back of his neck in obvious embarrassment. It likely wasn't every day he was told to take his shirt off in a room full of four girls well outside his league. "Anyway, umm...Blake? You ready?"

Blake's eyes peeked out from behind her book, finding Jaune's easily. "Can I finish this chapter?"

Jaune narrowed his eyes at her. "How many pages are you into it?" he asked shrewdly.

Blake's ears flattened. "Two," she muttered quietly.

Jaune rolled his eyes good naturedly. "Fine," he smiled, strolling over and throwing himself onto her bed. The mattress bounced and creaked in protest, but by then Jaune had already swung his legs up and over so that they were resting atop Blake's. Blake corrected the position, siding her legs out from under his so that hers were now on top - a maneuver that seemed to be done more out of habit than anything else.

Ruby, Weiss and Yang all wore identical expressions of shock, albeit with varying levels of intensity. Weiss's eyes were as wide as dinner plates as they flicked rapidly back and forth between the two teenagers occupying the bed. Ruby was bent at the waist, her lips parted as if she was trying to ask a question that refused to manifest. And Yang's jaw had actually dropped. The same three thoughts ran through all their minds at once in varying orders. Blake was letting someone touch her. Blake was letting a boy touch her. Blake was letting Jaune Arc touch her.

"Ummm," Yang said dumbly, the first of the group to recover the ability to speak. "Are you guys...going somewhere? Tonight?"

Jaune nodded eagerly, his blonde locks bouncing against his cheeks. "A Hibachi place on 7th." He peered briefly at Blake. "What's it called?"

"Osaka," she responded in a board tone, her eyes not leaving the page.

"Osaka!" Jaune snapped his fingers as if he had done the remembering.

The three girls continued to stare blankly at them. "And," Yang continued, speaking just as slowly and dumbfoundedly as before, "why are the two of you going to a...Hibachi place?" Yang had put the emphasis on the 'why' but judging by her tone it seemed more like she had wanted to put the emphasis on 'the two of you'.

Blake actually looked up from her book, her amber eyes meeting Jaune's blue ones for a moment as they shared a look of confusion. She placed a finger on the sentence she'd left off on in her book and then turned to her teammates. "It's...date night."

"What!?" Yang cried.

"Date night!?" Ruby matched her tone.

"With him!?" Weiss screamed incredulously at the same time.

Jaune and Blake both shrank away from the onslaught of noise, blinking confusedly as they did. They spared each other another confused glance. "What are you guys talking about?" Blake asked. "Wednesday is always date night."

"Since when!?" Yang cried.

Blake opened her mouth as if to answer, only to pause, her ears flattening as she rapidly tried to find anywhere to look that wasn't at Jaune. The blonde, for his part, adopted an amused smile, nudging the underside of her thigh with his foot. "You forgot again, didn't you?"

"I did not forget!" she hissed in protest.

Jaune laughed, turning to the rest of Team RWBY with an easy smile, the awkward confusion of their surprise momentarily forgotten. "Five months next Friday."

Yang's eyes flickered red three times. "Five months!?"

"Yang," Blake said slowly, "where did you think I was going every Wednesday night?"

"To train!" Weiss provided. "To study! To the kitchens! To bug Professor Goodwitch! To kill Grimm! Anything except going on dates with him!"

"Weiss," Ruby stressed her name, a small hint of her nervous whine entering her voice, "be nice!"

"Please," Jaune agreed quietly.

"You mean to tell me," Yang said slowly, her voice low and quiet, "that you two have been secretly dating for five months and you didn't tell me!?"

For the third time that night, Jaune and Blake's eyes met in a moment of pure confusion. "We...weren't keeping it secret," Jaune told her, only to squeak in fear and press himself against the wall at the glare Yang turned on them. There was no flickering now. Her eyes were solid red. "W-w-we just assumed you knew!"

"We haven't been trying to hide it," Blake came to his rescue, stealing away her partner's attention. Yang's glare was just as red and just as heated, but it seemed to do little to affect Blake.

"I've never even seen you two together!" Yang cried. Her hands rose up and for a horrifying moment, the residents of the room thought she was actually going to pull at her treasured hair, but then she lowered them again, seemingly having regained her senses. "You don't work together. You don't do anything together! You don't even talk to each other!"

"That's not...necessarily true." Ruby wrung her hands, shrinking away from Yang as her sister turned on her. "Th-they sit across from each other at lunch! And they always s-seem to walk together between classes. I never really thought anything about it but now..."

"Ugh," Weiss rolled her eyes. "She's right. They do always seem to be weirdly close to each other –"

"We're dating," Jaune griped under his breath. Blake kicked him lightly in his stomach.

"– all the time. And I have seen them walking together out in the yard."

Yang threw her hands up in the air. "Does no one tell me anything anymore!?" she cried. "You didn't think that was worth mentioning! I could have been teasing them!"

Weiss shrugged defensively. "I just assumed Blake was taking pity on him," she groused.

"Weiss," Blake growled lightly. Jaune kicked her lightly on the thigh.

"I cannot believe I missed this for five months!" Yang groaned.

Blake sighed, massaging her forehead with two fingers. "What did you expect us to do, Yang? We don't need to grope each other in the hallways to know we're in a relationship."

Yang's eyes flicked back to lilac as a sardonic smirk lit up her lips. Unable to resist the chance to tease, she winked at her partner, "Get enough of that in private, Kit-Kat?"

Neither Blake nor Jaune said anything, but Jaune frankly looked too proud of himself.

"Oh, gross!" Yang cried, averting her gaze from the boy as if that would blot out the horrid images. At the same time, Weiss adopted a queasy look, cradling her stomach and groaning, "I'm gonna be sick."

"Yeah," Jaune drew the word out awkwardly, his eyes flitting over the three girls' forms. "Well, this has been...fun, I guess. Uhhh, Blake?"

Blake looked at him in nothing short of panic. She proffered her book to him. "I haven't finished the chapter!" she cried desperately, in a voice that almost – almost – won him.

"You know they get super packed after eight," he replied soothingly, aware of what he was asking her. "We'll be waiting and hour just to eat."

Blake's eyes flitted back and forth between her book and Jaune's face for several seconds before her ears drooped, and she scowled. "Alright," she growled without heat, "let me get my bow."

She swung her legs off the bed, reaching for her trademark black ribbon as she did. Weiss' eyes widened, Ruby bent over at the waist and Yang's jaw dropped all for the second time. Blake has just chosen someone over a book. Blake had just chosen a boy over a book. Blake had just chosen Jaune Arc over a book!

This was serious. In every sense of the word.

Yang caught Blake's arm as she passed by, a manic grin on her face. "I'm your maid of honor, right?" she all but demanded. "Of course I am! Do not put me in peach, Blake, I swear to God!"

"What!?" Blake cried, stumbling back into Jaune's arms.

"Okay!" Jaune cried, gripping tightly to Blake's shoulder and steering her towards the door. "W-we're gonna go now. Uhh, h-have a...we'll see you...uhhh, bye!"

The door slammed behind them.

Yang swooned, a romantic sigh escaping her lips. "They're so cute together."

Weiss groaned. "This team is insane."