AN: So this year I release between the Thanksgivings. Even though the follow up doesn't really have a Thanksgiving theme anymore. Oh well.

"I still can't believe you were that dense."

Jaune groaned, slamming his head onto his closed textbook. Nobody in the class paid it any attention, which provided a sad commentary at how common such a reaction was there.

Of course, that was about the billionth time he'd heard those words in the past two weeks since Thanksgiving weekend. For whatever reason, the fact that it'd taken him so long to pick up on what was going on was the part that had his friends dumbfounded, despite the fact it should have been obvious, given how oblivious Jaune was on a normal day.

Honestly, it was far more surprising in Jaune's mind that there had ended up being something to pick up on in the first place.

It's not like people usually went to Thanksgiving dinners to pick up a date, yet that was apparently exactly what Yang had been going for when she showed up at his house that Sunday.

"I still can't believe you can't believe it." he grumbled in return, ignoring Ren's quiet laughter.

Not that he was really complaining about all the grief his friend was giving him. Sure, he had to deal with the dry remarks Ren would constantly make, and the loud teasing from Nora as well, but he also had gotten to go out on multiple dates with Yang Xiao Long, who for reasons beyond his comprehension was interested in him, so it was an alright deal in the end.

More than alright, in fact, as he thought back on how those dates had gone.

Their first date had been pretty typical, as they went out to a restaurant for dinner. Nothing super fancy, but not a burger joint either. His sisters had tried to force him into a ridiculous plaid sweater vest, but thankfully their mother had intervened and helped him settle on a blue dress shirt that she said matched his eyes. Her help wasn't without a cost, of course, as his sisters had inherited their teasing nature from somewhere, and his mother was keen on enjoying her 'baby boy's first date'.

Yang had worn a purple dress, and laughed openly at him when he'd first seen her and his jaw had dropped, leaving him gawking at her like an idiot. She didn't say anything about it however, and simply joined arms with him and lead him into the restaurant. She hadn't teased him at all that night, in fact, and while he'd enjoyed the conversation and jokes that had something other than him as the butt of them, a part of him seemed to miss the teasing flirts that had accompanied them at his house on Thanksgiving.

Not that he had needed to worry, as by the time their second date rolled around, Yang was right back at it, making him wish he'd never missed it in the first place.

"She was being rather obvious, Jaune. Even for your standards." Ren's comment interrupted his train of thought, and he shifted his head to look up at his friend's bemused expression.

Ren wasn't even looking his way, the cheeky little… not even the decency to face Jaune while he insulted him.

"Need I remind you how long it's taken you and Nora to get your acts together?" he shot back, feeling victorious as pink flushed through Ren's cheeks. His best friend finally turned his way to fire him a glare, before his calm demeanor reasserted itself with practiced ease. "Nora and I were a completely different situation than this, so you don't get to try and use that as a defense, Jaune." Ren replied stoically. Damn him.

Their bickering was interrupted as the bell rung to signal the end of the school day, leading both boys to grab their things off the desk and head out the door into the quickly crowding hallways. They cut through the cafeteria to get from their class to the hall their lockers were in, splitting up when they got there as their lockers were in opposite directions, with Jaune's near the end of the hall and Ren's being more in the middle. They parted with a simple nod and wave to one another.

Jaune worked his way through the crowds to his locker, quickly opening it and shoving his things away, before he pulled out his coat and slipped it on. He thought for a moment before grabbing the books he'd need on the weekend for homework and putting them into his backpack, slinging it over his shoulder and slamming his locker door closed carelessly, striding off down the hallway.

He came to a stop near the end of the hallway, which connected to the main atrium of the school, right beside the front entrances. Turning, he slid past a few people to lean against the lockers next to an open one, alerting its owner to his presence. She paused for a moment her head swung his way with a grin, "Come here often, Shnookums?" Yang greeted, making Jaune hold back a groan before he returned the jab, "Only when you're around, Honeybun."

Yang snorted, "This might be the worst habit we could have ever fallen into."

He let out a short laugh before poking her cheek, "You started it, so we all know who to blame here." he taunted, smirking.

"Oh," she said, turning towards him completely, "You wanna play the blame game, babe? You're the one who made me decide to resort to it in the first place."

Jaune rolled his eyes, "So what, it's nobody's fault? How convenient."

"If you want to talk about things that are somebody's fault, did you know that apparently we aren't dating?"

That froze him, both surprise and sudden worry shooting up his spine, "What?"

Yang took a moment to notice his reaction and offered him a warm smile to assure him this wasn't anything bad. "Most of the school doesn't believe that we're together. Blake told me earlier." she explained, "Something about how it made no sense and we don't do anything together."

Shaking off the now unwarranted worry, Jaune quirked an eyebrow, "We eat lunch together and talk in the halls all the time."

A sideways grin from Yang, "We don't do anything coupley together, Jaune. At least not at school. Just look." she pointed down the hall, and Jaune followed her gaze towards where one of their friends, Neptune, was at his locker, making out with his current girlfriend, Dew Gayl, their arms around each other.

Turning back to Yang, he let out a chuckle, rubbing at the back of his neck. "So basically nobody believes we're together because we don't spend all our time sucking face like every other couple in the school?"

"That about sums it up, yea." Jaune looked down with a frown, causing Yang's brow to furrow with concern.

"Jaune," she began, placing a hand on his shoulder, "You know I don't care, right?" she told him. He offered a quick smile, "I know, but I don't think I'd like it if some guy shows up and asks you out because he doesn't think we're together." he pointed out neutrally. Yang snorted in response, "I'd make sure they knew then, duh." she exclaimed, before settling down again, "Look, I knew before any of this started that you probably weren't going to be big on PDA. There's nothing wrong with that and you don't need to make yourself uncomfortable just because people are idiots. They'll figure it out eventually."

He shook his head, because that wasn't it. Sure, she was right in that he wasn't big on PDA. He was shy, and awkward, obviously, so doing stuff like that in public wasn't the simplest thing in the world, but he wasn't against doing it. Looking at her, he could see she was still concerned, for him. That didn't sit right with Jaune, seeing as the last thing he wanted was to bring Yang's mood down.

Besides, as far as relationship issues went… well, this was a pretty easy fix, if Jaune thought about it.

So, Jaune proceeded with the most obvious solution to their problem. Nobody believed they were together, and pretty much everybody was in this hallway with them. That in mind, Jaune stepped forwards, hands reaching to rest on Yang's hips so that he could direct her back a couple steps, putting her back to the lockers as he leaned down, grinning as he took in her wide eyes and surprised expression before he kissed her in front of the majority of their year.

There wasn't any resistance to the act, obviously. He knew that Yang would be more than up for it, considering how hard she'd been trying to convince him she was okay without this kind of display. Some quote about protesting too much rang in the back of his mind as one of her hands came up to cradle his jaw, the other wrapping around to grip at the back of his hoodie beneath his coat.

Once the kiss had drawn on long enough that Jaune was sure he'd gotten the point across, (and once he found the willpower to stop,) he pulled back, resting his forehead against Yang's and grinned down at her as she stared dazedly in surprise, taking deep breaths.

"I have absolutely no problem with kissing my beautiful girlfriend in front of whoever is around." he declared in a quiet voice, only for her to hear, "I just wasn't sure if you'd be okay with it, and I didn't want to mess this up."

He knew she'd heard when her hand slid from his jaw to his cheek, her thumb brushing across the skin there in a light caress. "You don't need to worry so much, Jaune, I'm with you because I want to be with you."

In response to that, he kissed her again, more chaste this time, before stepping back with a mock salute. "I'll see you on the bus then, babe?" he said in a humored tone, throwing the pet name at her like she'd done to him so often already. She smiled after a second as he walked down the hall from her in reverse, and saluted back.

"You bet, Lady Killer!" she shouted, smirking at him as his cheeks reddened from the new nickname, making him turn around to hasten his steps as he headed out of the hall and outside to the bus, still grinning.

Yang sighed once he'd left, letting her head fall back against the lockers.

"Geez, you look like you're in heaven. If I'd known blondie boy could kiss like that I'd have dragged him off myself." Turning, Yang found herself being looked over by Coco Adel, a member of the year above them, the senior class. The older girl was giving her a suggestive look over her sunglasses, eyebrows raised almost impossibly high.

Reaching blindly to pull her coat and bag from her open locker, Yang threw them both on in a few smooth motions and kicked her locker door shut, before levelling a warning glare at Coco, and by extension basically every girl within hearing range, and said a single word.

"Mine."

With that said and done, she made her own way out of the hallway with a smirk on her face, off to say goodbye to some friends and head to the bus.

Meanwhile, Jaune himself had hopped onto his bus, he paused at the top of the steps and sighed, spotting Cardin Winchester and his cronies sitting in the back seats, before moving down the aisle and taking one of the seats near the middle of the bus, dropping his bag to the floor of the bus between his feet as he slumped down against the window.

He'd just closed his eyes to rest them for a few moments before he heard the heavy footfalls coming his way from the back of the bus and groaned to himself.

It was followed by a large hand landing roughly on his shoulder, jostling him and forcing him to sit up and turn to face his assailant.

"Hey there, Jauney boy." Cardin said, his voice as irritating as ever to Jaune's ears, "You know, I've been hearing some pretty funny stories the past few weeks."

Jaune rolled his eyes, "Do tell." He droned sarcastically. Cardin either didn't notice, or didn't care. Probably both.

"Well, there've been a few rumors about you and Yang Xiao Long." Jaune raised an eyebrow, curious as to where exactly this was going, "Now, as your friend," Another eye roll, "I was just making sure you knew so it didn't surprise you later. I mean, come on, Yang Xiao Long dating you? As if!" Cardin's gang must have followed him over, because now they joined him in laughing, as if Cardin had just told some hilarious joke. "Just wanted to make sure you didn't get blindsided by this, Jauney. I'd hate for you to hear it and start getting your hopes up, as if you actually have a chance." The bully went on, "Not like anybody would want to date a loser like y-"his insult was interrupted by the sound of somebody clearing their throat.

Jaune turned his head lazily to grin at Yang as he spotted her, standing in the aisle with one hand gripping the back of a seat tightly while she glared at Cardin.

"You're in my way." She drawled, tilting her head as she stared down the much larger Cardin, whose confidence seemed to have wilted with her arrival.

"W-what?" he asked, confused. Yang nodded her head at the empty space next to Jaune.

Smirking, she elaborated for Cardin, "I want to sit with my boyfriend. You're in my way. Is that alright, or should I use smaller words for you to figure it out?"

It was with no small amount of smugness that Jaune took in Cardin's flabbergasted expression. In his personal opinion, it was a very good look on the other boy's face.

"You, with… with him?"

Yang threw her arms up in feigned exasperation, "Oh my gods." She shoved Cardin back a few steps, forcing him and his friends to stumble down the aisle until there was enough room, and then slid into the seat on the bench next to Jaune, bumping hips with a sneaky wink his way in greeting before she turned on Cardin again.

"Yes. In fact, I'm off to spend the entire weekend at his house. I'm sure you can picture all sorts of things we might do there. Jaune does have a really comfy bed, after all." She smirked suggestively as she said it, eyebrows raised innocently, "Now how about you go away so I can enjoy some time with my boyfriend?"

That seemed to do the trick, as Cardin and his friends retreated to their seats at the back of the bus, seeming to be at an absolute loss for words after Yang's arrival.

The moment they were back in their seats, Jaune snorted and broke into unmanly giggles. Yang raised an eyebrow at the display, questioning.

"Sorry," he said, not sounding at all sorry, "That's just the most hilarious thing I've seen in my life."

Yang huffed, "Funny, huh? Not what I was going for exactly." Jaune snickered.

"I'm sure you were plenty intimidating to them, don't worry Honey."

Now was Yang's turn to snort. She pulled off her coat and stuffed it down with her backpack before settling in, leaning over to rest her head against Jaune, prompting him to shift back into the more relaxed position he'd been in before Cardin had come over, and bringing an arm up behind Yang to toy with her hair.

"You know, if Cardin gives you anymore trouble, I could beat him up for you." Jaune barked out another laugh, making Yang tilt her head up at him.

"What?" she whined, defensive.

Jaune just grinned, shrugging to show that he wasn't going to argue with her, "Nothing, you're just getting really over protective all of a sudden. It's really cute." Cue another huff, and a faintly muttered "Am not." from his girlfriend as she crossed her arms.

"Are too, cutie patootie." Yang threw out a hand to slap him in the chest lightly, "Don't even start with that."