Disclaimer: I own nothing of RWBY.

Pink

By: Imyoshi

Playfulness

Slash!

Time froze for Jaune Arc for a quick moment of a second before he hastily jumped back.

He couldn't believe it. He couldn't actually believe it.

Progress—dust! He was actually making progress!

Standing a few feet apart, Jaune and Pyrrha stared each other down, weapons drawn formidably, but the thought of attacking seemed so far away from their minds that it was almost laughable at best. For the first time since they started their nightly sparring sessions, Jaune had actually managed a hit, a cut really, on the apparently invincible Pyrrha Nikos. But a cut nevertheless.

The thought almost made him jump up for joy, but comparing and thinking of the countless bruises and cuts she's given him before, it would only result as a hollow victory. Instead he fashioned for a foolish grin and a trace of a new found confidence, burning in his eyes, something the slightly wide-eyed female Spartan took immediate notice to.

She's rarely seen him so confident before when he's sparring. Confident, not determined. There's a difference, a big difference.

Still grinning, Jaune couldn't keep quiet anymore and lowered his sword in a relaxed position, "I-I did it. I actually landed a hit on you! This is amazing! Oh yea!"

Pyrrha couldn't stop the warmth from filling her insides. He made it sound like he just accomplished his dreams thanks to her. The very crazy thought made her fluster. She simply adored the way his face lit up in happiness, masking everything around it and making the world around them much warmer.

Or maybe that was just her?

Tightening her grip on Miló, Pyrrha decided to push the thought back to test Jaune's sudden burst of self-assurance before it vanished. That tended to happen to him a lot and she'll be damned to let his opportunity go to waste.

"Don't rest now, Jaune." Charging at the knight, she lunged towards him, weapon raised and shield ready. "We still have a lot more training to do!"

The sudden flash of panic on his face made her grin all the more as she closed in on the poor blond.

Clash!

...

Defeated and beyond exhausted, Jaune laid on the floor of the roof, covered in cuts and bruises like always and ignoring how Pyrrha decided to use his stomach as a chair to sit on. Thank dust she wasn't heavy, even with all that armor on or he would've had some trouble breathing by now.

Still, the goofy blond couldn't help but feel awesome. He was definitely making progress. Slow, but actual progress.

He actually landed two cuts on her this time. Sure her aura has already healed those small cuts, and she had no problem beating him to a pulp afterwards, but it's the thought that counted. At least that's what his mother always told him.

"So?" Pyrrha hummed, enjoying her seat and tapping the armor plating on his chest playfully. "What have we learned today, Jaune?"

Still fairly in a great mood, Jaune decided to tease her like he use to with his family and their crazy antics. Practice made perfect and he's had a lot of practice.

"That you're really, really, heavy?" he faked winced, laughing at the pout she so stubbornly fought not to make. "It's getting so hard to breathe. So hard! I'm being crushed."

Apparently that little comment was enough to make the redhead hmph before getting up. Of course Pyrrha knows he's joking, but two could play this game. So she walked away from the downed knight towards a corner and had her arms crossed, hoping she looked rather convincing.

She did.

Beaten at his own game, Jaune sighed before getting up and lightly jogging over to Pyrrha, "Aww, c'mon! You know I was only kidding. Pyrrha?" She didn't turn around so he resorted to drastic measures. "Pyrrha!"

Jaune tried shaking her shoulder, but nope, nothing.

She merely huffed, hiding her smile and walked a few more feet away, throwing her head to the side and pouting to add some dynamic as well. It worked.

Stumped at what to do with the irritated girl, Jaune tried to remember how he dealt with angry girls before. Then like a light bulb, he got it. This always worked with his sisters.

Walking slowly behind her without her noticing, he slowly wrapped his arms around hers, entrapping and hugging her in a warming hold.

"Hey, c'mon, I said I was sorry," he mumbled so quietly into her hair, feeling her tense up slightly. "I didn't mean it. You're very light like a feather. Honest."

Pyrrha is struggling not to melt and tries to hold onto her pout as long as she could, but the backwards embrace was making that really, really, hard. It was hard enough not to just sink into his arms, very less not blush a collision of storms.

This wasn't fair!

Two could definitely not play this game!

"F-Fine! I forgive you," she struggled to get out of his hold before she did something drastic, but for some reason she couldn't. "What?"

Grinning mischievously into her hair, Jaune's eyes gained an impish glint, "Ah ha, I got you now, Pyrrha!" Using his aura, he had her locked in a hold a normal person would have trouble breaking. "You should never had let your guard down. Time for my counter-attack! This fight isn't over yet!"

She barely had time to respond before Jaune started tickling her lower sides, still holding her in a locked hold. Then the laughs happened. Loud and feminine cries of joy echoed into the night sky as Pyrrha laughed long and hard while Jaune held her up a smidge to keep her squirming down to a minimum.

"J-Jaune... s-s-stop it!" she cried, finding it hard to breathe. She couldn't even concentrate enough to use her own aura and break free. "Hahaha! Stop! I can't—I can't breathe!"

Jaune felt his blood rushing like crazy; for once he found a chance to win—to beat Pyrrha. He didn't understand why he decided to tickle her. Something like this normally never crossed his mind. Could it be due to his especially good mood?

Probably.

Whatever the case was, he wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste. By his honor of an Arc, he wouldn't!

"Give up and I will!" Jaune made sure to add more pressure to her sides. "Admit I win."

"N-Never!"

By dust, Pyrrha swore. This was so not fair!

"Oh well," he teased, a mockish tone rooted in his voice. "You brought this upon yourself. I gave you a chance. No more mercy!"

And no mercy he showed for a few minutes, relentlessly tickling Pyrrha into submission. The redhead girl could barely contain her laughter, but eventually she steeled enough resolve to gather up some of her aura in a weak attempt to break free.

While her aura glowed to give her strength, neither of them noticed the slight color difference between their auras as they continued to struggle. Jaune's pure white aura easily mixed with her blazing red aura, creating a nice soft aura that neither of them had seemed to recall, both were far too busy trying to best each other.

Eventually Pyrrha bested him and broke free from his strong grip, the pink aura vanishing, and moved back, arms ready in case he attacked again. However she was unable to keep the flustered smile off her face or the laugh that followed after. Jaune only seemed to be grinning, oblivious to her blush and instead laughed alongside her.

When they eventually settled down, Jaune took it upon himself to step forward, ignoring her raised arms, and smiled sheepishly off to the side. He honestly didn't have the fight in him to continue going.

"So? Did I win?" he asked, hopeful.

Immediately she recognized his tired and poorly throughout plan to finish what they started. Jaune probably couldn't go on anymore and the thought of beating to a pulp again sounded so refreshing. But she was in a relatively good mood now, so instead Pyrrha grinned and flicked him on the nose for an answer before walking off, leaving a very distraught and confused Arc behind.

She kept walking to their room, a slight skip in her step, and pleasantly ignored his cries from outside as the door to the roof shut.

"Wait? Is that a yes? Pyrrha? Pyrrha!"

...

Idioticness

Sitting alone with his legs hanging off the edge, armor off, and staring up at the night sky where him and Pyrrha usually trained, Jaune could see an incoming storm heading towards Beacon.

Great, he inwardly sighed. Jaune Arc did not like storms. He did not. Quite the opposite actually.

The knight doesn't know why he hasn't gone inside yet, tired still from his earlier training session. Maybe secretly he had insomnia problems like Blake did when it came to her books. Nah, he slept too much in class for that to be the problem.

Maybe he shouldn't have stole one of Nora's pancakes when she wasn't looking today for breakfast. Who knows what she does to them when no one is looking. It's probably the syrup. It had to be. There's something she adds to keep her awake all day. That's the only reason Nora can be so... Nora during the morning—afternoon—midnight.

Could it be from Ruby's cookies?

So lost in his thoughts, Jaune doesn't hear the door to the rooftop open.

"Jaune?" a voiced called out that he recognized as Pyrrha's. "Are you still out here?"

Pulled out of his crazy thoughts, Jaune turned around to see his partner's head staring at him all concernedly from the corner of the door. She looked worried.

"Pyrrha?" he eventually answered, almost wide-eyed. Slowly he relaxed and went to look back up towards the night sky, just for a moment forgetting about the approaching storm. "Looks like you found me."

"Wasn't that hard," she smiled, arms crossed behind her back. "You're pretty bad at hiding."

"Wasn't hiding," his grin seemed a bit force as if he was trying to hide something. "Just thinking of stuff."

"What kind of stuff?"

"You know, stuff." he shrugged, not wanting to answer. "It's nothing."

Too bad for Jaune Arc, Pyrrha Nikos wanted an answer.

Moving to sit next to him, Pyrrha allowed her own feet to dangle beside his. She shift closer almost to the point for their shoulders to touch, the cold night air slowly getting to her. However, the Spartan refused to shiver—refused, damn it!

Grinning, she bumped his shoulder with her's, doing it more than once for fun, "Jaune... you know you can tell anything, right." Jaune refused to look her in the eyes, so she pressed a little firmer, stretching his name. "Jaune?"

Will crumbling, Jaune finally looked her in the eyes, already regretting his decision. Let it be noted that Jaune Arc did not cave, did not. He just couldn't say no to Pyrrha... that's all. He. Did. Not. Cave. And any mention of it would be later denied on all accounts by said blond.

"Fine," he caved, hard. "I'm just trying to think of a way to thank you. For, you know, helping me and all. You really didn't have to, but you did." he smiled lazily at her. "If it wasn't for you, I would have probably been sent home... or worse, be dead already. Thanks, Pyrrha."

Caught off guard at his heartfelt confession and foolish smile, Pyrrha's face burned, her thoughts jumping around at the mention of finding a way to thank her. Her very perverted thoughts that is. Many scenarios of Jaune thanking her only further adding fuel to her fire as she thought more of them in great detail.

Not good!

Looking away in haste, Pyrrha can't help but jumble her words together. Her fingers twiddling nervously.

"It's n-nothing, Jaune," calm down! "That's w-what f-friends are for?" Friends?! Don't say friends! Say partners. Dust, she just loves to keep digging herself deeper into that hole.

Jaune looked with mild interest at Pyrrha's flushed face, noticing the slight pinkish tint she had on the bridge of her nose. He tilted his head, she seemed to be getting that color on her face a lot lately ever since the dance.

Pink.

Such a unique color. His sisters once told him when a girl has a pink face, you should beware. Beware of what though? Don't bother asking him. They never did tell him. Only giggling each and every time he did bother bringing it up. So eventually he stopped asking, much to his own dismay. Some things were better left a mystery.

Still, he wondered why Pyrrha was acting so strange, even to the point of some of her words seemingly getting muddled together. Was she catching a cold? Maybe. She did seem to be rubbing her arms excessively. And stuttering. Let's not forget the stuttering.

Ignoring her jumbled words and cautious eyes glances, Jaune took his sweater off, which apparently even got a bigger reaction from his partner and held out to his getting sick teammate.

"Here."

Pyrrha looked at the sweater he was offering her and then back at him, still quite flustered.

"I don't want you getting sick," he answered her casually, shaking the sweater in his hand. "C'mon take it. What kind of leader would I be if I let you get sick?"

She did take it, putting it on quickly, and wrapping herself snugly within the confines of the Jaune scented threads. It did nothing for her blush whatsoever, but she was smiling now. And she didn't appear to be shivering either. Good signs if the Arc thought so himself. Good signs.

Almost ready to go to bed, he figured he might as well finish thanking her, best before he forget.

"Like I said, Pyrrha," Pyrrha almost jumped in surprise, not expecting him to talk again so quickly. "Thanks to you, I've gotten so much better. I was actually able to land a hit on you. You! Pyrrha Nikos! I've never felt so strong before! I've never felt so close to actually reaching my dream! And it's all thanks to you!"

Pyrrha didn't know how to respond to it all, so she numbly listened to him rant on about how she made him a better person. She listen to his voice taking an excited tone each and every sentence. And she listened to his constants thanks that were meant for her and solely her.

The girl didn't even realize she held tighter onto his sweater, too busy watching the excitement in his eyes shine brightly.

Brighter than any star out here.

Out of breathe and finally finished with his rant, Jaune got up, stretching, and feeling exceptionally tired now. "Well, I'm beat. Let's get some sleep. Shall we?" he grinned.

Still flustered, Pyrrha looked off to the side, bouncing her feet on the ledge. "I'm keeping the sweater."

...

Nervousness

Nothing to be afraid of. Nothing at all. Nope.

Bang!

Okay, so maybe he was still a little afraid of lightning. Who wouldn't with it's loud banging sounds and bright flashes of death? Lightning is bad, very bad. Almost as bad as traveling by an airship... almost.

Nothing would ever be as bad as that.

Still, he knows it's silly. Dust, it's downright amusing. Him, a guy, a knight—an Arc of all things! And he is totally afraid of a little storm. Forget amusing. It's totally hilarious. And he's afraid.

No! No. He can't be afraid. His family weren't here to make the bad lightning go away. Not this time... not this time. This time Jaune shut his eyes shut and tried to drown out the sounds outside. For a small moment it was working too. Peace and quiet slowly surrounded his subconscious, leading to an easy sleep and—!

Bang!

Screw this.

He could swallow his pride. He did it every time at home, no matter how embarrassing it was. What's one more drop in a sea of soul crushing regret?

Tiptoeing over to Pyrrha because, hell, he did not want to wake up Nora. He wondered if the redhead was a cranky person. Best not to take the chance.

Gently he shook Pyrrha, who was still in his sweater by the way, and was hoping she didn't have any battle reflexes in her sleep.

Whack!

Sigh, one could dream.

"Huh?" Pyrrha yawned, retracting her fist and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. "Uh? Hello?" Seeing no one in front of her, she shrugged and yawned again and tried to fall back into dreamland until a quiet groan got her attention and she looked down from her bed to see Jaune, who looked to be in a lot of pain, lying on the floor.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha blinked. "What are you doing?"

Jaune grinned in pain, his stomach hurting, "Oh, you know. Lying around. Haha—ow."

Confused, Pyrrha turned her head, an imaginary question mark thought bubble popping above her head. "What?"

Still in pain, Jaune mentally noted that a tired Pyrrha was a slow Pyrrha. Nevertheless, his stomach hurt and the raging storm outside threatened any minute to flash another lightning strike.

"Can I sleep with you?" he whispered, kneeling on the side of her bed, armed only with his nervous smile.

It was an innocent question.

Too bad Pyrrha didn't see it as one. Her slow mind woke up and dozens of thoughts rapidly came and went. Her face flushed as she suddenly found the very idea of staring into the goofy blond's eyes too hard to do.

Instead and she looked away and whispered, "W-What?"

Jaune pouted, kneeling closer to her bed, "I'm scared of lightning," he admitted.

Now Pyrrha found the strength to look at Jaune, all previous, ahem, thoughts gone. She stared hard at him incredulously, unable to believe his words.

"You're scared of lightning?"

"Shush!" Jaune whispered yelled frantically. "Not so loud. What if Nora and Ren heard you?"

Pyrrha looked over to see Ren and Nora fast asleep. The latter mumbling something about unlimited pancakes with a trace of drool trailing down her goofy smile. The other busy mumbling something about lucky crickets and someone named Mushu.

Pyrrha looked back down to a panicking Jaune and smiled, "I think you're safe."

Looking back to see she was right, Jaune moved closer to Pyrrha, eyes big, "So can I sleep here? Please."

Pyrrha wanted to say no. She should say no. She had to say no. It's against the rules to sleep in the same bed... she thinks. And she doubts her own heart can take the idea of her and Jaune sharing a bed, but one random pout from his lower lip got her.

"Fine," she sighed, dreading the idea of being so close to him. "You can sleep on this side."

Tears fell from Jaune's eyes.

"Oh thank you!"

Moments later, Jaune was in her bed, sleeping on one side, already out like a light. Pyrrha on the other hand had her eyes wide open, her heart threatening to burst out her chest at a moment's notice. And the worst (best) part about it, Jaune had slept shirtless.

Now how is she going to get any sleep?

As if to answer her call, Jaune out of nowhere reached out and pulled Pyrrha to his chest, his arms firmly wrapped around her petite frame, holding her. Apparently Jaune Arc, hunter in training, wannabe hero, was a vicious cuddler. And all the while he was completely oblivious to his actions.

Now with her question answered, Pyrrha did the most logical thing a person would do in this predicament.

She passed out.

...

Kindness

Light shined through the windows of Team JNPR's room.

The storm had passed.

And it was a bright sunny day.

Waking up to such a beautiful day, Jaune Arc woke the first of all his friends, well-rested, and ready to take on whatever the day had planned for him.

Untangling himself from Pyrrha, the knight got dressed and wondered what to eat this morning.

He almost made it out the door before he remembered to do something else.

Walking over to a still sleeping Pyrrha, he gently tucked her back into her sheets, making sure she was comfortable. It's nothing new to him and when done, his biggest concern is whether if he should get pancakes or fruit for breakfast.

Unbeknownst to him, Pyrrha had awoken when he got up and untangled his arms from her body, and pretended to stay asleep. Least saves herself from anymore embarrassment.

She did not however expect him to tuck her in so softly and promptly lost all control of the blood rushing to her face.

Almost out the door and now just noticing Pyrrha's entire flushed face, which was practically glowing, Jaune stopped to wonder about it.

Weird.

There's that pink again.

Author Notes: I have no idea how to write a RWBY Arkos story. I'm new here.