Chapter 1: Blondes That Go Bump In The Night

It was no use, Jaune Arc just could not get to sleep tonight. No for lack of trying, mind you, it wasn't his idea to to still be awake at this hour. Glancing at the time, Jaune could see that it was just gone 1:00. Had it been the weekend, he might not have minded so much. Or if it had been 1:00 PM and he was trying to sleep. Yes, that would be nice. However, he doubted Pyrrha would ever allow that. In any case, no matter how much he hoped differently, it was 1:00 AM on a Thursday night and Jaune was wide awake.

Technically it's Friday Jaune corrected himself. At least I have that going for me. One more day then a nice weekend off. We haven't even been given any work to be done over the weekend yet! He smiled to himself, happy he had managed to find the positive in his situation. Of course, it didn't change the fact couldn't sleep. His muscles were all cramped up, and no position allowed him to escape the twangs of pain that shot into his limbs. Well, gotta blame myself on this one. Pyrrha did tell me to stretch after training, and at this point I should know to follow her advice. Even if it means getting to dessert 15 minutes late.

Sighing, Jaune swung his legs over the edge of the bed, slowly to avoid any unnecessary pain, and felt for his slippers. Despite how comfortable it was, Jaune just couldn't sleep in his onesie anymore. Nora would burst out laughing whenever he had it on, and even Ren seems to get a slight smirk. So instead, he had done something he was very proud of; using the sewing skills he had picked up from living with 7 sisters, he had cut up the light blue onesie and turned them into a nice fluffy pair of light blue pyjama pants and separate pair of bright blue rabbit slippers. He did have to have his comforts, after all.

Jaune had decided that while he was awake, he might as well do something about his sore muscles. While his first thought had been a shower, it posed the risk of waking his teammates, not something he wanted to do only 7 hours before classes start. Instead, he decided on a warm glass of milk and cookies. He may have been hanging around Ruby too much.

Still, at least it should help my muscles. Doesn't chocolate always help? Jaune made his way to the door, treading carefully for the benefit of both his team and his muscles. Anyways, we have Professor Port's class tomorrow morning. I can always catch up on sleep then. Jaune reached the door, slowly opening it and slipping through, shooting one last glance at his team. Pyrrha was sleeping soundly, and would be nicely rested for tomorrow's classes. He then shifted his eyes over the other partnership of JNPR. To his not-so-much surprise, Nora had somehow snuck herself into bed with Ren- who was either oblivious to the fact or at least impartial, given he was still sound asleep.

I'll leave them be for now. Bring it up with Nora tomorrow. He glanced at the huge smile the erratic girl had plastered to her face. Or maybe I'll let it slide.

Jaune was so busy looking at his favorite not together-together pair, he didn't notice the other presence also sneaking into the hallway. At least, not until he backed into said presence, barely holding in his scream of surprise.

While Jaune was aching with sore muscles, through a door, a hallway and another door, another blonde was also laying awake. Yang Xiao Long stared at the ceiling, thinking. Unlike most people believed, being the jokester of the group was hard work. Of course Ruby was always upbeat, but expending the energy to keep the ever-optimistic Blake and cheerful Weiss smiling throughout the day was exhausting. Not that Yang would ever complain, it was both a role she was born for and molded by, not to mention it was the only role that allowed her to make the awesome puns she knew everyone secretly loved.

However, it did beg the question; why she was awake at 1 o'clock if her job was so tiring? The answer was simple; it's when she got to be alone with her thoughts. While Blake could always slip away, and no one would dare disturb Weiss if she wanted alone time, Yang got less time than she wanted to herself. Tonight, she was up late thinking once again about the most vague yet important question; Why?

Although the breach had happened over a month ago, Yang could not get Ooblecks words out of her head. What did I become a hunter? Surely I didn't commit to this life just for thrills, did I? There are other jobs that provide that, and I'm surely not that shallow. Realizing the answers that evaded her for the better part of a month weren't going to magically appear, Yang decided a walk would be the best course of action.

As she carefully removed herself from the top bunk, careful to not make a noise lest a certain pair of sensitive feline ears were to hear her at this ungodly hour, she glanced at her team. They're all so motivated Yang thought to herself, a smile gracing her lips What would I do without them?

Stepping out into the hall, Yang was met with a scene that she did not expect. Jaune stood there, about 2 meters away, staring through his door, presumably at his sleeping team. Even from behind, Yang could tell he was smiling, just by the way he held himself.

Now there's a guy who knows why he's here. Yang's thoughts immediately going to the cause of her sleeplessness. All he wants to do is be strong enough to defend others, and he hasn't stopped trying since he got here. Not to mention how much he cares for his team, I mean just look at him now. Yang felt a twinge of guilt. Jaune had gone through so much to get here; faking transcripts, becoming a team leader, fighting through bullying. At no point had he stopped trying, stopped fighting for his goal. Contrasted to her, it was so noble.

The more Yang thought about it, the more she wondered if she actually deserved her spot at Beacon. While most people wanted to become a Huntsman, Yang had just followed the easiest path. Of course, Yang had earned her spot here, a skilled fighter with the best of them and earning surprisingly good marks. But since arriving, how much effort had she put in? She hadn't committed to bettering herself to save others, like Ruby or Jaune. She didn't try hard in classes to learn, like Weiss or Ren. All I'm doing is taking a spot away from someone with a more noble goal. Someone who actually wants to make the world better.

Lost in her thoughts, Yang barely noticed as Jaune closed the door, not until he backed up right into her at least.

As Jaune crashed to the floor, it was all he could do to not let out a shout as pain shot through his sore muscles due to the abrupt movement. Once he had taken enough time to figure out what had just happened, Jaune looked up to see who else might be up and about at his time of night.

"You know, I get that I'm hot and all, but that doesn't excuse you from throwing yourself at my feet like this."

A groan escaped Jaune's mouth as a light blush went up to his cheeks. Not that he wasn't happy it was Yang instead of a stranger, or worse, a teacher, or worser, a member of team CRDL. However, he wasn't sure if he could take jokes and torment at this time. "And why exactly are you awake right now Yang?" he asked while receiving a hand up.

"Couldn't sleep, decided to go for a walk." All signs of Yang's inner dispute had disappeared when Jaune had fallen over. "However, I didn't take you for a night owl, Vomit-Boy."

Jaune had long given up on ridding himself of that nickname. "Too sore. With the Vytal tournament so close, Pyrrha's been drilling me harder and more often."

"You know, usually it's the guy that drills the girl," was her response, given along with a smirk. As expected, it took Jaune a second or two to figure out what she said.

"N-No no no, Yang, not like that!" A furious blush formed on Jaune's face, while Yang burst into quiet laughter. She couldn't help it, Jaune just made it so easy. Not to mention he gave arguably the best response to her innuendos. "I just want to go get something from the caf."

"I'll join you then, it'll stop you getting scared by the dark, or falling for any other women."

The two set off, Yang in a better mood now that she had got some laughs. Jaune just walked in silence, staring at his feet. Out of the 4 lines Yang has said so far, 3 of them had been for the purpose of teasing him, and Jaune didn't feel the need to make her job any easier.

"You know, if you're gonna be alone with me tonight, it will make it a lot easier if you talk." So much for that plan. Turns out Yang can tease you either way.

"Sorry Yang, just all tired and sore from earlier." He glanced over at her, only to see a huge smirk plastered on Yang's face. Jaune just sighed. She didn't even need to make the comment for him to get innuendo passing through her head at what he had just said. Deciding it was best to ignore, he chose to continue to stare straight downwards.

"C'mon Jauney, if you are gonna talk to me, at least look at me. I'm up here." His eyes moved to follow her arm, not quite processing that she was pointing at (and so he was staring at) her chest. As realization dawned on his face, Jaune turned away as quick as he could, blushing once again.

As much fun as she was having, Yang decided it was time to stop, at least for now. There was, after all, only so much teasing she could do to Jaune before he broke. "Alright alright, I'm done for now," she assured him, receiving a skeptical glance in return. They walked in silence for a bit longer, before pushing through the doors that opened into the large cafeteria. Jaune paused for a second, then headed towards the kitchen, which would provide him with what he came for. In the meantime, Yang's thoughts had led back to the cause of her late-night wanderings.

Even at 1 AM, Jaune knows what he's doing, has a goal in mind. While it might not have been fair for Yang to compare the hunt for a midnight snack to one's aim in life, it certainly highlighted the problem in her mind. "Hey Jaune," Yang quickened her pace to catch up "Mind if I ask you a question?"

"Uh.. ya, go ahead." Jaune was taken aback by the serious tone of her voice. He had no qualms with helping her out, but it wasn't exactly like he and Yang were close. In fact, when he thought about it, as much as team RWBY and JNPR hung out together, the only close friendship between the two seemed to be his and Ruby's.

"How are you always so motivated? I get that you want to get better, but it just never seems that you ever stop."

Now Jaune was definitely taken aback. He'd never pegged Yang as one to have hidden problems. She was always so happy, joking and taunting everyone else. "I just… I don't want to be weak anymore. At home, I was weak. I came here, and I was weak. If I stop, I might just be weak again. And if I'm weak, I can't be a huntsman. I couldn't save people." He reached into the fridge to grab out some milk. "I guess… I just can't afford to stop."

Yang nodded, but didn't look any less troubled. "I don't know what motivates me. I just kinda, do it. I don't really try in classes, I don't have some overarching goal." While some might have thought that saying she didn't try was some kind of brag, Jaune realized what she meant. Despite all she was, all she naturally had, he seemed to have the one thing she was missing. "Jaune, you're a good leader, and despite the fact I'm not on your team, why do you think I've taken this path? I just.. can't figure it out myself."

Jaune frowned at the sad look that had crossed the always happy face of Yang Xiao Long. Placing the cup of milk he poured himself in the microwave to warm, he started rummaging around for any cookies that might contain chocolate. "Well, you seem like a great older sister. Maybe you wanted to make the world safe for those closest to you?"

Yang looked up "I mean yeah, but I already knew Ruby was going to become a hunter. Both my pa- My dad's a hunter. They don't need me to make the world safe."

"Just because they can doesn't mean you want them to have to fight." The microwave beeped behind Jaune as he kept searching. "Or maybe you're doing it for yourself." Jaune's eyes lit up as he saw his target: a box of double chocolate chip cookies. "Maybe you just want to make the world a place you can be happy, where you can relax. And you know what? That's perfectly fine." He turned just in time to see the last of his milk quickly vanishing from his glass and down Yang's throat. "Or maybe you're just here to make my life a bit more difficult." Jaune sighed and opened the fridge up again.

Yang let out a quick laugh at his last comment. However, his words seem to have had the intended effect, and Yang seemed a lot more at ease. "Thanks Jaune." She opened the cookie box and started snacking."I know we might not be very close, but you're a good friend. To all of us."

Jaune seemed to grumble something about milk, but quickly turned to flash Yang a light smile. "I'm glad, I try to be." He started heating up his new glass of milk. "However, I might not be the best friend if there are no cookies left for me."

"And what do you think you can do if there aren't any left, big guy?"

"Well, someone might let slip to Ruby that her sister went out for a late snack and didn't even bother to save any double chocolate chip cookies for her."

Yang let out an exaggerated gasp "How fiendish!" They shared a laugh as Jaune started helping himself to the cookies. "However, I doubt you would. I think you'd find that when I want to be, I can be quite… persuasive." Yang sauntered over to Jaune, her hips saying quite provocatively, even in pyjamas. She leaned in closer and whispered "And I always like to get my way."

Jaune backed up as quickly as he could, blushing for what seemed like the 100th time that night. At this, Yang couldn't help it and let out a hearty laugh. "C'mon Jauney, finish up your drink and let's start heading back. It's already gone 1:30." This caught Jaunes attention,his eyes widened as he gulped the rest of milk down in one and stowed the cookies away.

"Crap, our first class is at 8 tomorrow! I don't function on this amount of sleep!" Jaune complained, rushing out the door and towards his room.

Eventually, he slowed down and waited for Yang to catch up, but not without a bit of panicked looks and foot-tapping. "Relax," Yang grinned "Remember, we have yet to be given any homework to be done over the weekend. If you want, you can come find me and we'll sleep together all day Saturday~." Boy was Yang enjoying making Jaune uncomfortable.

"Maybe this is why we don't hang out just the two of us." Jaune retorted "I have no one else around to also get teased."

"Wait, are you saying you don't like this side of me Jauney?" Yang asked sweetly, turning to face him as they reached their dorms. "You could hurt a lady speaking like that."

Between the time (now closer to 2 o'clock) and the glass of warm milk, Jaune was too tired to even respond to her fake flirting. "Night Yang. See you tomorrow." And with that, Jaune went into his room, landed on his bed, and fell straight to sleep, his aching muscles long forgotten after the late night snack and chat with Yang.

Yang too entered her room and climbed up to her bunk, but was not greeted by sleep nearly as quickly. Instead, she thought about what Jaune had told her. "Maybe you just want to make the world a place you can be happy, where you can relax. And you know what? That's perfectly fine." She smiled. After all, whats wrong with making the world a better place for myself? I do have to live here after all. And with that, Yang finally out her thoughts to rest, settling down for a shorter than desirable sleep.

This will be a long conclusion so for a TL;DR:I am very new and will accept help and advice in anyway you wish to provide it, and also I don't plan ahead.

What? You made it to the bottom? Well thanks for reading my story! Unless you skipped down here, in that case go read the rest since I didn't write it just for me! I'll give a bit more info down here for those interested.

Currently, I'm rating this T and under Humor/Romance. It's a JaunexYang story since for some reason I love the idea of the pair. Depending on how the story does, I might move it into M if needed (but that doesn't mean get your hopes up for lemons your animals). I might also have to remove the Humor tag if depending on how this goes, but currently I doubt that.

For the direction the story goes, I don't plan on making it too serious/dark, and want it to be a more lighthearted, happy story for your enjoyment. But as I mentioned, I am open to any suggestions.

As you might guess from my uncertainty, I haven't mapped out this story very far. I have a rough idea for the next ~3 chapters give or take, but nothing past that. As such, I would love to here lots of feedback from you guys! Since this is literally my first story written just for fun, I am very open on how to improve, both pure writing and the story itself.

Speaking of feedback, let me know if any character starts being too OoC. Obviously I have a slightly different take on the characters, and they will be slightly different if the story needs, but if it's too different please point it out! Please note Yang is making more innuendoes since I find them much easier write then puns (Don't shoot! I'm lazy), not to mention its a T (maybe turning M) story so I find them fine to include.

Finally, I am a very sporadic person, so I can't say I'll keep to a regular update schedule, or even finish the story( Don't worry! I want to, and I don't think it will very long anyways.) Since I am very focused on RWBY right now and have a good amount of free time, I expect to get the next 3 chapters out well within the month, but after that I can't guarantee.

Finally, I am only 1 man. As such, if any of the more experienced writers here. would want to proofread my chapters before they go up, or maybe even help me plan out certain scenes/ direction for story, let me know! Obviously, don't feel a need to if you can't, but I am always open to help.

If this story really picks up I will probably do a much bigger update in about 2-3 chapters, going into some more details and requesting even more feedback.

Looking forwards to all the feedback, and see ya soon with a new chapter!

Finally, for those of you who might browse other websites that I frequent, remember, OP is a bundle of sticks!

-Dunkacoke-