Ren watched Jaune out of the corner of his eye as the knight stared into the gently crackling fire. The way the low light danced along his features was enthralling, and Ren found himself struggling to look away for any length of time. Despite this, he dropped his gaze to the ground between their feet and turned his head just a bit more as if to face his teammate. Breaking the silence, Ren's voice came barely above a whisper. "...May I kiss you?"
@stormfloret sent.
the jaune of the past was a lovestruck fool. who pursued romance like a madman at a school meant for hunters ? why couldn’t he have the maturity of his classmates back then ? his crush on weiss was a useless endeavour that wasted time he should have spent focused on training. he remembered distantly on a night of confiding, when their team had been whole and jaune’s heart was unfractured, a time he’d asked ren about love. jaune came to ren about everything, had considered him the brother he’d never had, probably overshared far too much about his feelings when he still wore them on his sleeve. “ have you ever kissed a girl ? ... a boy ? ” the young canid had asked, couldn’t help but in that moment stare at the shape of ren’s lips, then rise to watch the light reflect off pretty orchid hue. back then ren had replied that he’d never really had the time to think about feelings like that, and it made sense, didn’t it ? jaune believed that ren already had what it took to become a huntsman, definitely had the mindset of one. he’d been so mature and at just seventeen too, of course he never thought about that kind of stuff. it had made jaune feel childish, sheepish in response, and he’d brushed the thought off with his typical nervous laughter.
he’d never had a crush on a boy before. it felt different from his crushes on girls, tending to hit him with the force of a speeding beowolf, hard and fast. it was a subtle thing, much like ren. the way lotus moved when he fought was a difficult thing to ignore, fluid and beautiful, an unbridled grace invoking something jaune at first thought was jealousy and then developed into sheer adoration. he handled his weapons well, and his hands were mesmerising. slender, elegant fingers but still deadly with their precision. he had the same kind of lips jaune tended to fixate on, how hadn’t he seen that before ? especially when the words that spilled forth from them was sincerity at it’s finest. everything ren said, he meant. he didn’t waste words, he tailored them, made sure that each one held weight. jaune had always thought that extremely admirable of him, made it feel like each sentence directed specifically at jaune meant something special, that he was worth every syllable. and he’d become fixated on ren’s voice eventually too, the rich tone, low and soothing, calm enough to serve as a lullaby, but with a timbre that could set jaune’s nerves alight should he so will it. his teammate had always been a pillar of support. intelligent, trustworthy, level - headed, kind, but never before had the comforting sound of his voice alone made jaune weak in the knees until recently. jaune hadn’t realised he was infatuated with ren until it was too late.
this wasn’t really the time for it. faunus hearing had made ren’s whisper thrum in his ears with near deafening force. he’d been shellshocked, frozen even if he gave no outward reaction. they were following the trail of pyrrha’s killer, on the verge of something monumentally important. his feelings seemed like trivialities in comparison to those world - altering things. but ... it was different if he took into account ren’s. ren, who expressed emotion so sparingly, who was hard to pick apart, and whose smile was so breathtaking, and heartbreaking in its rarity. jaune would never know how much courage it took to ask that question, because it would have taken all of his and more. it sounded so composed too, like how ren usually was, even now bearing this much vulnerability and he was still hard to read. trying to understand ren in that moment of deliberation was so much easier than focusing on how hard the wolf’s heart was beating, the battle between elation and fear making it hard to breathe. the first and last time jaune had been kissed he’d only felt fear. there was no desperation rolling off ren in waves, and no solemn goodbye hanging in the air between them. this might not have been the time, but there might never be an optimal one. maybe pyrrha had understood that.
he didn’t trust his voice, but he trusted his instincts. when they told him to bridge the distance between himself and ren, he had no choice but to obey. hands shook as the backs of his fingers gently brushed aside midnight stands, becoming surer, steadier, as his hand moved to cradle ren’s jawline. he stroked gently at the skin near his pulse, and revelled in the softness, the pretty furl of ren’s eyelashes before he realised what jaune might be doing. he didn’t have any more time to think himself out of his decisions. in the end, after all this time, he was still just a teenage boy falling clumsily in love.
jaune leant forward and pressed his lips against ren’s.
