Chapter Text
Yang and Pyrrha were walking down the hallway, talking about the virtues and vices of armed and unarmed combat. Of course, Yang was also hoping to woe Pyrrha a bit by showing off how she knew her way around a polearm, when suddenly, a familiar meek voice came from what looked like an empty classroom.
Yang to come to a sudden halt when she recognized whose voice it was.
Pyrrha nearly bumped into her. "...Yang?"
Yang turned her gaze to Pyrrha, putting a finger to her lips to signal her to keep quiet as she slowly approached the half-closed door. Then, Pyrrha heard it too. The small voice she was used to hearing rambling about weapons and team formations.
Ruby's voice.
"I know I'm not the most mature girl here," she said. Her words felt fragile, like a rose petal during fall.
Yang inhaled sharply. Pyrrha froze.
"But when I'm with you, I just..." Ruby let out a nervous laugh. "I don't know. Things feel just easier."
Pyrrha felt her face immediately begin to heat up, while Yang was on the verge of tears. They quickly understood they weren't meant to be hearing this.
But they couldn't turn away now.
"You make me want to do better, " Ruby's voice continued from inside the classroom, unaware of having an audience. "To be better."
Yang had to cover her mouth with both hands to avoid gasping as the first tear fell down her cheek. Her little rosebud was blooming into young woman in love.
"You make me feel safe," Ruby said. "When you're around, it's like I could confront the world, and win."
Pyrrha wasn't sure if she should be embarrassed or impressed. The words carried so much vulnerability, yet such strength in their honesty. She looked at Yang, who was barely holding herself up.
"When something good happens, you're the first person I want to tell."
Pyrrha put a hand on Yang's shoulder for support as she sniffled.
"When something goes wrong, I wish you were with me to help."
Yang had to release her hands from her mouth to wipe away a tear. 'My baby sister', she mouthed off.
Ruby took a deep inhale, as if readying for the last part. Yang and Pyrrha both leaned in, finally catching a glimpse of Ruby's face, seeing the small blush in her cheeks as she intently looked at whoever she was confessing to.
She had her hands closed, fingers interlocked, as if praying. "I don't know if I'll ever be brave enough again to tell you any of this."
Pyrrha felt her heart sink for reasons she wasn't entirely comfortable examining.
"Oh wow," another voice answered. "Okay, that one was officially too much."
Yang and Pyrrha's gasps were barely covered by Ruby's heavy groan of pain and embarrassment. Made worse when they both recognized who the voice belonged to.
Jeanne Arc.
Ruby was confessing to Jeanne, who was now harshly rejecting the girl by mocking her words.
"W-What?" Ruby croaked.
“Emotional honesty is good. Great, even." Jeanne talked as if she were giving notes. "But you went too overboard."
"Too overboard?!" Yang whisper-shouted next to Pyrrha, who had no idea what to do or even think at this point.
"I-I didn't--" Ruby tried to say.
"You absolutely did," Jeanne interrupted, as if unaware of Ruby's distress. "Ruby, if somebody said all of that to me, I'd assume they were either proposing or dying."
Outside the classroom, Yang's eye twitched before her lilac pupils turned red between blinks.
"Seriously," Jeanne snickered. "If a girl looked me in the eyes and said all that, I'd probably run away."
"YOU WOULD WHAT!?" The classroom doors slammed wide open by Yang's kick, nearly flying off their hinges.
Jeanne nearly fell backwards off the chair she was sitting on as Ruby let out a startled squeak. Meanwhile, Yang stormed into the room like an angry hurricane, followed closely by a very conflicted Pyrrha.
"You!" Yang was pointing an accusatory fist at Jeanne, Ember Celica deploying around it.
"Me?!" Jeanne raised both hands in the air.
"Yang?" Ruby looked perplexed.
"Ruby!" Yang looked saddened at her sister.
"Jeanne!" Pyrrha called for her partner.
"Pyrrha?" Jeanne was both scared and confused now.
"Nora!" Somewhere away, Nora called her own name out, to the confusion of everyone but Ren.
"What do you mean you'd run away!?" Yang roared, barely held back by Pyrrha.
"What?" Jeanne blinked.
"You heard me!" She continued. "My sister just poured her heart out to you, and you laughed!"
Jeanne stared at Yang for a moment. Being held back by Pyrrha did little to diminish the threatening aura from her stare.
"What?" Jeanne ventured again.
"You rejected her!"
"Yang?" Ruby asked again, sounding increasingly confused.
Jeanne blinked, hands still raised, and then she slowly turned towards Ruby, who just stared back, blinked a few times, then her entire face turned red.
"Oh."
The tiny sound escaped her like she had just realized exactly what Yang and Pyrrha must have heard.
Jeanne's eyes widened as well.
"Oh, crap baskets!"
Pyrrha suddenly had a terrible feeling about what was going on, while Ruby immediately buried her face under her hood.
"This is so embarrassing," she said from under the cloth.
"What..." Yang finally calmed down enough for her eyes to stop burning red. "...is happening here?"
"Yang," Jeanne carefully said. "This is going to sound cliché, but I swear as an Arc that it isn't what it looks like."
Yang looked between them, then at the empty classroom. Then at Ruby, and back at Jeanne.
"It looked exactly like a confession." She relaxed her arms but kept her tone low and serious.
"Jeanne was just helping me," Ruby peeked from under her hood, not blushing anymore but still looking mortified. "To... practice flirting."
"What?" Yang blinked, now fully relaxed, which prompted Pyrrha to let her go.
"She asked for feedback." Jeanne carefully lowered her hands.
"Yeah, feedback." Ruby snapped at Jeanne. "Not to be told I'd scare you away."
"I'm sorry, Ruby, but you went far overboard." Jeanne said while shaking her head. "I mean, look at Yang. She was convinced you were swearing eternal love."
Ruby let out a wounded noise.
Pyrrha rubbed her forehead. The worst part was that Jeanne wasn't wrong. If this is what Ruby called flirting, Pyrrha feared what would she do for an actual confession.
"So…" Yang looked between them a few more times before finally deflating. "You weren't confessing to Jeanne?"
"No!" Ruby shook her head, eyes tightly shut.
"Oh." Yang coughed on her fist, trying to salvage the situation. "Sorry for... wanting to end you." She awkwardly apologized to Jeanne.
"It's okay." Jeanne smiled.
A few minutes later, the four girls found themselves walking through the hallways together. Wit the 'love drama' mostly adverted, Yang started to see the comedy in the situation.
After a bit, she still couldn't stop herself from laughing.
"I still can't believe I actually thought you were confessing to Vomit Girl here." Yang whipped a tear off her cheek, holding into Pyrrha's shoulder for support.
"Like, come on, Rubes." She threw an arm around her sister's shoulders. "If you ever actually, did it, she'd never realize it."
Ruby snorted despite herself.
"What does that mean?" Jeanne frowned.
"It means you're dense!" Yang replied.
"I am not dense." Jeanne defended herself. But as she looked back at Ruby and Pyrrha, she saw them both nodding.
"You... can be," Pyrrha agreed. "Sometimes." Her tone was the one of a woman who had first-hand experience with the high density that composed Jeanne Arc's skull.
"See?" Yang burst out laughing again.
"Oh, come on!" Jeanne just crossed her arms, frowning.
"Jeanne." Ruby put a hand on her shoulder for support. "Someone could walk up to you, look you directly in the eye, and confess."
"And I'd notice," Jeanne finished. But as all three girls stared back at her, Yang still giggling, she slowly lost some confidence.
"I mean, eventually," she conceded, shrugging.
They all shared another laugh together. The sound echoed through the hallway as the four girls continued walking together towards their dorms.
None of them noticed the small blush spreading across Ruby's cheeks, or the small sadness hidden behind her smile.
Because the joke wasn't that Jeanne Arc was hopelessly dense.
The joke was that Ruby had to mount all that show to walk right up to Jeanne, look her in the eyes, and confess everything.
And no one noticed.