Chapter Text
Now That's a Katana!
It was midday at Beacon Academy, and the students were engaged in combat class with Professor Goodwitch. Now in their third year at Beacon, Team RWBY was fighting against themselves after Jaune and Pyrrha had secured an easy victory against Cardin and Sky. Not willing to let his defeat go easily, Cardin planned sweet revenge.
"Are you sure about this, Cardin?" Sky asked, casting doubts on their leader's scheme. They were standing in the hallways, where both locker rooms stood opposite each other. The two, although fully changed back into their school gear, had not returned to the stands to their fellow classmates, the two waiting purposefully for Pyrrha to change and head back first.
"Of course I am, Sky!" Cardin assured his doubtful teammate as he stood back and admired his work. His latest prank? Switching the locker room signs so that the girls' locker room sign hung over the boys' and the boys' locker room sign over the girls'. The goal? To embarrass Jaune Arc.
Cardin knew Jaune was always the last to leave the locker room, no matter what. Cardin figured Arc was just small where it mattered and didn't want to feel emasculated by the other guys. He thought at first about waiting it out and storming the locker room himself, scroll in hand and camera ready to embarrass the blonde doofus himself, but where was the fun in that? It was go big or go home! Team RWBY would be finishing up their match any minute now. Banking on them not bothering to check after their match, they'd walk into the mislabeled locker room and catch Arc by surprise. He could hear Arc freaking out now, and if he knew Xiao Long, the story would be around the whole school within minutes.
"Come on, let's get out of here!" Cardin whispered and pushed Sky out of the hallway as four sets of footsteps slowly approached.
"Oh man, I'm beat! We worked up quite the appetite today. I can't wait to head to lunch after this," Yang said, stretching as she and the rest of her team walked toward the locker room.
"That was an excellent use of your clones today, Blake. You caught me quite surprised," Weiss praised her teammate.
"Thank you, Weiss," Blake curtly responded.
"Oh yeah! If we keep this up, this year's Vytal Tournament will be ours for sure!" Ruby exclaimed, pumping her fist in the air.
Cardin was right. Too worked up from their fight, Team RWBY went right instead of naturally left, walking right into the mislabeled boys' locker room. Stepping in as they approached the lockers, the all-girl team could hear a shower going off towards the back.
"Huh, I guess Pyrrha worked up more of a sweat than I thought," Yang remarked, quite surprised, as Pyrrha tended to be the first to enter and the first to leave the locker rooms.
As if on cue, the shower had stopped. They could hear the shower curtain unfurl, and after a second of silence, a whistling sound could be heard coming towards them. It sounded very similar to that song Team JNPR danced in unison during their freshman year.
"Hey, Pyrrha, I didn't know you could whistle!" Ruby exclaimed as she unclasped her cape. Blake had undone her bow, letting it fall, and her ears plopped out. Weiss untied her ponytail, her hair flowing down freely, and Yang had just taken off her signature jacket. All four of them were turned around and looking away from the whistling direction.
The whistling had abruptly stopped, followed by a long silence.
"Pyrrha?" Ruby and others turned around and met eye to eye with none other than Jaune Arc, half-naked; the only thing covering his lower half was a towel wrapped around his waist, his hands frozen above his head as he held a smaller towel against his hair, presumably drying it as he was walking.
Seconds passed before they all screamed.
"AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"PERVERT! What are you doing in the girls' locker room?!" Weiss shouted, holding Myrtenaster out at Jaune, ready to strike.
"Girls locker room!? You're in the boys' locker room!" Jaune shouted back. He had dropped the smaller towel on his head so he could firmly grasp the larger towel around his waist to make sure it wouldn't fall.
"As if! You dunce! Of course, this is the—" As Weiss scanned the room, she caught one thing that shouldn't be in the girls' locker room: a set of urine marks against the right wall.
"Ummmm." Everyone turned their heads to Ruby, who stood near an open locker door with Jaune's infamous Pumpkin Pete hoodie hanging over it. Ruby had moved the hoodie, revealing Jaune's name tag on the locker, signifying his ownership of said locker. The girls' eyes trailed right, and next to his locker was one labeled Lie Ren.
"But the sign!" Yang exclaimed, hands wide in the air.
Blake, already a step ahead, had walked back to the locker room entrance. Returning a few moments later, she held the lady's sign in her hand and stated, "The sign's been moved."
"But the only other people who were here were Pyrrha and..." Ruby paused as realization set on all five students in the locker room.
"Cardin." They all growled out his name in unison.
"That jerk gonna pay when I get my hands on him." Yang cracked her knuckles. The other girls happily nodded in agreement.
Jaune's quick felt relief in clearing his name of being a pervert was soon replaced with self-consciousness and embarrassment as he remembered his state of undress and soon found the four members of Team RWBY staring at him.
With tensions lowered, the girls of Team RWBY were now at ease, relieved by the fact Jaune wasn't some creep trying to watch them change, and were able to properly take in the sight before them. As each of them gained an eyeful of Jaune, each of them began processing a shared thought individually, Pyrrha's training had done Jaune wonders. No longer the noodle boy who had vomited on Yang's boots during the initiation, Jaune Arc stood tall with broad shoulders and a body that was definitely filling out more. With a bit more work, he could even probably rival Sun in the ab department.
Jaune cleared his throat and immediately looked away, asking, "Well, now that that's cleared up, do you think I could get some privacy so I can get changed?" He did his best not to stammer and succeeded.
The girls seemed to realize they had been staring and grew flustered finally. They were still in the boys' locker room and had yet to leave. Ruby stepped up, arms waving widely, and said, "We're sorry, Jaune. We'll get out of here!" She then started to push her team out of the room.
"Thanks, Rubes," Jaune sighed in relief and stepped forward.
Ruby turned her head back on reflex and shouted, "No pro-" Ruby looked down. "Watch out!" She tried to warn him.
"Huh?" Jaune said before putting his right foot down on an unnoticed bar of soap under his foot.
The next thing they heard was a loud crash as flesh met cold marble.
As Team RWBY turned around, they could just barely make out Jaune's legs sticking out past the nearby bench.
Yang put her hands to her mouth and called out, "You good, Vomit Boy!?"
Despite the immediate groaning, they saw his hand raise with a thumbs-up. "I'm good," Jaune hazily said, followed by a heavy sigh. "Only I would find a way to fall on a bar of soap." That earned a few giggles from the girls. Jaune was clumsy, but this was just really bad luck.
Grabbing onto the bench for leverage, Jaune climbed to his feet, rubbing the back of his head as he stood up straight, all the while thinking he just wanted to enjoy a nice long shower with no incident. With his composure regained and his footing steady, Jaune took notice of the four girls in front of him, once again staring at him. But this time, things had been different. Yang's mouth was agape, Blake was biting her lips, Ruby was clenching her cape so tightly, it looked like she was gonna rip it half any second now, and Weiss had her hand raised over her mouth to cover her gasping face. Despite their different reactions, they all shared three things in common. They were all blushing madly; their eyes were wide open, and they were all looking down. Following their gaze, Jaune slowly turned his head down; his look of confusion morphed into horror as he realized the discarded towel lying on the floor. No wonder it had suddenly gotten so cold...
Panic, fear, and embarrassment had completely taken over his mind, so much so that he was frozen in place, despite every fiber in his mind telling him to pick up that damned towel. The only thing moving was Jaune's mouth as he stammered out complete and utter gibberish.
"Damn Jaune! I didn't know you were packing a claymore, too!" Yang's teasing had broken Jaune from his stupor; he quickly bent down, grabbed the towel, and, with a speed that would put Ruby's semblance to shame, retreated back to the shower and away from their eyesight.
"My Gods! I'm so sorry! I DIDN'T KNOW!" Jaune shouted out apology after apology. "Please just pretend you didn't see anything!" He added quickly. Jaune wanted to die right then and there. How could that have just happened? To him and with Team RWBY of all people. He couldn't believe he had accidentally flashed them. He had never been humiliated before; even being called Vomit Boy was better than this. He was so distracted by his internal panic that he hadn't heard Ruby calling out Yang's name and some of the back-and-forth between the two sisters. Jaune returned to reality by the sound of the locker room door slamming shut.
Peaking out around the corner, Jaune made sure the coast was clear before processing anymore. Seeing no signs of Team RWBY, he stepped out, towel once again wrapped around his waist, and quickly walked to his locker to put some clothes back on.
Outside the locker room, while many things were going through the minds of the girls of Team RWBY, they all remembered a certain line from one of Blake's books they had all read at one point during their stay at Beacon, 'Now That's a Katana!'
...
"I don't get it; it's been half an hour, and still nothing!" Cardin slammed his fist down on the cafeteria table as he stared daggers at the back of Arc's head. His team sat with him, huddled around, listening to their leader's complaints.
"You think they didn't fall for the switch?" Russel had asked.
"Just look at Arc; he's been acting all fidgety since getting back from Combat Class," Cardin pointed out before adding, "And look at them!" To the right of Team JNPR, Team RWBY sat at a different table with a couple of other tables in between the two teams. "Three years, and now, all of a sudden, now they're sitting separately. No, something happened." Even from their distance, it was easy to see that Jaune was nervous about something. He kept stealing glances to the right, presumably looking at Team RWBY. Something must have spooked him because all of a sudden, he had shot up, red in the face, and practically sprinted out from the cafeteria.
"I don't know what happened, but I'm gonna find out," Cardin swore.
Over at Team RWBY's table, the girls were having a discussion of their own, having seen Jaune quickly exit the school cafeteria.
"I can't believe you back there, Yang!" Ruby berated her sister.
"WHAT! All I did was ask Jaune if he was doing anything later?" Yang defended herself.
"He was naked!"
Yang merely shrugged in response, not seeing the problem. "Not like he's dating anyone."
"Like Jaune would want to go out with a brute like you anyway." Three heads turned to the Heiress as she voiced her cold opinion.
"Excuse me?" Yang asked with a hint of venom in her tone.
"All I'm saying is Jaune clearly has a type. If you recall, he spent the first year here vying for my attention," Weiss gestured to herself.
"If Irecall! You also turned him down every single time," Yang shot back harshly, reminding Weiss.
"That was years ago, and Jaune has changed a lot since then. He has become a respected leader among the teams at Beacon, and it is more than clear now that he was not just after my name and reputation. Perhaps I will take him up on one of his past offers. I believe a new Spruce Willis Movie is out this week."
"Oh, that's why huh? And not 'cause he's got a baseball bat swinging between his legs?" Yang asked, calling her out on her bullsh*t.
Weiss's face was tinted pink as she quickly responded, "Of course not!"
"That's not fair!" A slam on the table brought the white, black, and yellow of Team RWBY to move their attention to their leader, whose hands were planted firmly on the table. "I was Jaune's best friend first! If anyone should get to ask him out, it's me!" Ruby then pointed to herself.
"Tch!" Blake scoffed and said, "Please, like either of you three would know what to do with that." As heads turned, eyes narrowed dangerously at the feline member of Team RWBY.
"Care to share with the class, Blakey?" Yang asked, clearly not amused.
"You talk a lot of game Yang, but I've never seen you once with a guy in your whole time here at Beacon." Yang opened her mouth to respond, but not having one, she shut her mouth and folded her arms. Blake then turned to Ruby and said, "Ruby, I know you haven't even kissed a guy before." The little red reaper looked away, embarrassed to be called out on the fact. Blake turned to Weiss last and said, "And Weiss, second base with Neptune, barely counts." Weiss gasped at the accusation, wondering how Blake even knew about that. "I'm the only one here with proper experience. Jaune should be someone who knows what they're doing," Blake stated.
As silence descended over the table, eyes switched from one girl to another as each girl slowly got the same idea. Standing up in unison, a silent challenge was issued amongst themselves.
May the best girl win
Author's Notes: This just came to me last night as I was finishing up chapter 25 of Team RWVBY and decided to just write it down for pure fun! If there is a want for more of this, I'll continue it, maybe with a separate chapter for each girl. Here's an update on the Bridgerton-inspired RWBY poll. This is going off votes from both fanfiction and AO3
Neo - 14
Yang - 4
Weiss - 6
Blake - 7
Neo has a very healthy lead at the moment. Will keep the poll open for the rest of the week and weekend and then start writing the story properly.
As always, hope you enjoy!
