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Although Teams RWBY & JNR had been keeping busy during their time in Atlas, both with helping in the construction of the Amity Communications Tower and taking Huntsman missions, they made sure to try and set aside one night every week for a sleepover in one of their academy dorm rooms, where the seven of them, and Oscar, if he could get away from Ironwood, would gather together and exchange stories about the missions they had been on, eat an inordinate amount of snacks, and just hang out, passing the time in whatever way they saw fit.
“You sure you wanna play chess again Oscar?” Jaune asked as everyone settled down on one such evening, offering an extra scroll to the youngest member of their group as he and Ruby sat in front of the screen Yang and Blake had ‘borrowed’ from the common room whilst Nora distracted the Ace-Ops. “Ruby and I would be happy to show you how to play.”
Oscar shook his head. “Maybe later. I haven’t got Oz’s chess knowledge to lean on, so I gotta learn it all myself if I’m going to beat Ironwood at least once whilst we’re here,” he said, as Ren finished setting up the game for them both.
Jaune nodded with a smile, turning back to the screen as Ruby booted up the game.
And so the evening proceeded quietly, with Weiss sitting in front of one of the beds as Nora set about brushing and re-braiding her hair, and Blake cuddling up with Yang as the former read quietly to her partner. It was peaceful, fun, and to the seven from Beacon, familiar.
The peace didn’t last long however.
“YEAHHH! In your face Jaune!” Ruby suddenly shouted. Oscar jumped and looked over at the gaming pair. Ruby was grinning smugly at a somewhat put out Jaune, a victory screen making it obvious that Ruby had scored some victory against her fellow leader. However, Oscar was more surprised to see that none of the others had reacted to Ruby’s shout of victory at all; even Blake’s faunus ears were completely still.
"Don’t worry about it,” Oscar heard Ren say. “That’s normal for them. It's your move."
Things continued, but now the comfortable silence was occasionally broken by a joyful screech from Ruby whenever she scored a victory against Jaune. Evidently by the lack of yelling from Jaune, he was getting his ass kicked.
At least until he heard Jaune whisper, “Oh yeah, I got you this time Ruby,” and Oscar glanced over again, just in time to see Ruby give Jaune a nudge with her side. It wasn’t hard, but it surprised him enough to momentarily distract him, and caused him to lose yet another round. For a moment, Jaune was stunned speechless, then his face slowly took on a serious look as he glared at Ruby. He was clearly not pleased about her resorting to dirty tactics to maintain her winning streak. In a challenging tone, he practically growled, “Ohhh, it’s on now,”
Incited by Jaune’s provocation, Ruby deviously smirked back. “Bring it, Arc,” she said as she restarted the game.
As the two diverted their full attention back to the screen, Weiss rolled her eyes. “Here we go again.” Everyone but Oscar groaned quietly in agreement. At his questioning expression, Weiss elaborated, “Their game nights normally ended this way. Those two just get way too competitive.”
And true to Weiss' warning, Ruby and Jaune did indeed get very competitive, and even louder, shouting taunts and jibes that he would thought have were deliberately insulting if he wasn’t already aware of how close their group's leaders were.
Things steadily escalated, and Oscar was distracted enough that he lost several of his chess pieces to Ren in quick succession. He wondered how Yang could still hear Blake reading to her over the cacophony.
Finally, it happened.
“YEAHHHH!!! Take that crater face!” Jaune sounded overjoyed at finally claiming a victory against Ruby, and this time Oscar was witness to the sight of a victorious Jaune Arc being stared down by an angry Ruby Rose. Or rather, she stared up, given Jaune’s height advantage.
“You…you cheated!” she hissed, pointing a finger into his chest.
Oscar overheard a quiet “Uh oh,” from Blake as Jaune drew himself up against Ruby’s accusation.
“You’re just a sore loser because I finally beat you,” he responded.
“Nuh uh,” she shook her head. “You cheated vomit boy.”
“Excuse me, Arcs never cheat. You just finally could no longer stand up against my superior skills and tactical knowledge.”
Jaune grinned with pride, and closed his eyes haughtily, meaning he never saw what was coming next. Ruby reeled back, and leapt at him, taking Jaune by complete surprise. The attack knocked him to the floor, and ended up with Ruby hovering over him as she straddled his body.
At that moment, the room’s door slid open, revealing a very displeased Winter Schnee in the doorway. “May I ask all of you to please keep the noise down…” Winter trailed off as she spotted Ruby and Jaune’s intimate position.
A brief staredown ensued, Winter staring blankly at the pair on the floor. Ruby and Jaune, frozen, stared back. Weiss almost seemed prepared to jump between her sister and the pair of idiots.
Finally, Winter instead let out a heavy sigh, and spoke, “And may I please ask you to at least try to keep a decent level of decorum?” With that, she stoically turned, and closed the door behind her as she walked away.
For a few moments, an awkward silence ensued, until it was finally shattered by Yang saying, “Uhhh, Rubes? You can probably get off of Jaune now.”
Both leaders flushed red realising their intimate position, and Ruby, with a mortified squeal, speedily shuffled off of Jaune. Jaune sat back up, but both leaders refused to make eye contact, instead choosing to stare at the floor.
A few more moments of silence prevailed, punctured by giggles from Nora. Finally, Blake spoke, “Do you think you two have something to say to each other?”
It took Ruby and Jaune a moment, but they eventually looked at each other.
“Sorry-”
“Sorry-”
They both chuckled as they interrupted each other, and prompted by a nod from Jaune, Ruby went first.
“I’m sorry I was being such a butt. I know it’s not fun to get beaten constantly like that; Qrow does that to me and Yang all the time.”
“And I’m sorry I reacted so poorly. It’s just a game after all.”
And with that, the leaders were friends once again, as they both leaned over to give each other a quick hug. However Ruby couldn’t stop herself, “It’s just that I happen to be better at it than you!”
“Okay!” Yang interrupted before the competition could ignite all over again, leaping out of her bunk to grab both of their discarded scrolls. “I think that’s enough of that game for tonight.” She flung both of the scrolls onto the bunk above her as she added admonishingly, “Please try and give the rest of us a little bit of peace.”
Ruby and Jaune cringed at each other, embarrassed as they remembered how loud they had gotten. “Fine,” Ruby grumpily mumbled.
“Yeah, keep the romantic tension outta our sleepovers!” Nora suddenly declared, once again causing the pair of leaders to blush. Everyone else laughed as they went back to their activities.
Oscar smirked to himself, seeing an opportunity. “And that for you two,” he announced, getting the attention of them both, “Is game over.”