The cafeteria was full of the low chatter and clink of metal cutlery, while the world outside the windows was an eldritch mess of floating rocks, endless clouds, and rippling thunder. It was the latter which told Jaune it was a dream because aside from the impossible view outside, everything inside the cafeteria was the same as it had always been – right the way down to the food in front of him being a replica of what he liked, and his teammates being arranged in their usual seats. Team RWBY came and sat down opposite them, or him, and Ruby leaned forward excitedly.

"I can't believe you asked my sister out to the dance!"

"Uh." He wasn't used to being the centre of attention in someone else's dream. At least not this early. "Why? Should I have asked you out instead, crater-face?"

"What?" Ruby recoiled, just like he was sure she would have in real life. "Pft! What? No way. Ew!"

"What do you mean ew? I'm a catch."

"Pft. Yeah right. Catch a Beowolf more like!"

It was such typical banter between them that he just knew the dreamer was someone at the table; it was impossible for it not to be unless Ruby had a stalker. He was fairly sure Yang would have found and killed such a person if they existed.

"I have to say I'm surprised as well," said Weiss. "Pleasantly, though. You really are moving on just like you said."

"Hey," growled Yang. "Don't say moving on like I'm second best."

"Oh, is that what you inferred?" Weiss smiled cattishly behind her fingers, and Ruby burst into giggles. "I'm sure I didn't mean it that way, but if that's how you see it then maybe there's a point to be made there. He did ask me first, after all. And repeatedly."

Yang responded by lashing out – but not at Weiss. Her hand caught his collar and yanked him bodily over the table, and then slid around his neck. Their cheeks smashed together, Yang holding him in place as she grinned wildly. "Yeah, but he's head over heels for me. Right?"

"I only-"

Yang squeezed his neck. "Right?"

"I am madly in love with Yang. I am lost in her presence."

Jaune made sure to drone the words out sarcastically, and everyone laughed. It really was everyday chatter between them, and he'd told his team that he was going with Yang earlier that very day. He'd been worried Pyrrha might be upset, but she'd just told him she was happy for him. It had gone a lot better than he thought it would.

Yang let his neck go but did grab his hand, winking and squeezing it for a second. That, he felt, was unlike her. Yang was touchy for sure but a gesture like that was a bit much when all they'd done was agree to go to a dance together. They both knew they weren't actually dating.

"It'll be fun," chirped Yang. "And I'm not above going out a little after, too. Try a few more dates, eh?" She winked at him. "If this one goes well."

"Uh. Sure. I mean, yeah. If all goes well then I'd love to."

Jaune scanned the faces around him as he said it. Dreams thus far had mostly been nightmares – the only exception to that being Amber. Even Amber's had started off rough with her being locked away in a bedroom as well. If this was a nightmare then he hoped he'd be able to tell who felt unhappy with what he was saying.

The obvious contenders were Pyrrha and, ego-crushingly, Yang. Pyrrha would be the obvious choice if she really did have feelings for him, but he wouldn't put it past Yang to have a relationship-based nightmare. It didn't have to mean she was having second thoughts; it might just be a nightmare where she embarrassed herself, or where he turned the date into a disaster. Sort of an embarrassment nightmare – like showing up at school naked.

Pyrrha was a little faint on the smiling end, but she didn't look upset either. The smile wasn't all there, but he'd felt that way himself whenever Saphron and Terra started going all lovey-dovey in front of him. No one liked being the third wheel or having to deal with friends having a "moment" while you got to sit around and pretend not to see it. If she really had feelings for him and this was a nightmare where her dreams were crushed then he would have expected a much bigger reaction. He decided to test it.

"Hey. You okay, Pyrrha?" He nudged her side lightly with his elbow. "You're looking a little out of it."

"Oh, I'm fine. Say, do you think Nora will have a date to the dance?"

"Nora? Why? Thinking of asking her?"

Pyrrha giggled and punched his arm. "No, silly. I think we both know she wants to go with someone other than me." Her voice wasn't nearly quiet enough for him to not think Ren could hear. Dream or no, he waved for her to not be so loud. Pyrrha complied, speaking in a whisper. "Do you think she'll ask Ren?"

"It's hard to say. Nora always puts on that only friends thing."

"We both know that's nonsense, right?"

"Yeah. Obviously." Nora was absolutely awful at pretending Ren was no more important than him or Pyrrha, and it'd have taken a very determined person to believe otherwise. "But I mean that she puts it on and might continue to put it on, and then never actually ask him."

"Hmm." Pyrrha hummed. "Then maybe we should ask for her."

He was beginning to think this couldn't be Pyrrha's dream if she wanted to talk about this. It wasn't that Pyrrha wouldn't have the empathy to want the best for Nora, quite the opposite, but she was conscientious enough not to talk about it right next to them. Pyrrha would have saved it for their training on the roof in the evening, or after when they would sit down and chat as they cooled down from the workout.

"Let's talk about it later," he said. "Our of earshot."

"Hm. Okay."

Jaune turned back to the table only to find it had disappeared and that, by the evening sky outside, it now was – apparently – later. Jaune was stood in a hallway with Pyrrha and Nora, and he was stood on the edges of a conversation just wrapping itself up.

"-would love to but I don't want to ask him. What if Ren says no?"

"Isn't it better to know for sure? You're just going to make it worse and worse if you keep waiting."

"I know but I'm still too scared to ask." Nora fidgeted with her fingers but had the self-awareness to laugh at her own indecision. It was just like her. "Every time I work up the nerve, something happens to make me lose it. I thought I could ask this time but now I'm not sure."

"Well, what if we asked him for you?" offered Pyrrha.

Is this Nora's dream, then? Jaune was content to let Pyrrha do the talking as he watched Nora's face. There was anxiety there, the kind of which you'd expect in someone unsure if their crush returned their feelings. If Ren rejects her and breaks her heart then it would make sense. This is Nora having a nightmare about whether she should or shouldn't ask Ren to the dance.

Catastrophising, he thought it was called. It was a psychological term for when a person would mentally imagine all the ways something could go wrong before they'd even started, often scaring themselves into not trying in the first place. It was more common in people with depression and anxiety, neither of which really sounded like Nora, but he had a feeling everyone did it to a small degree. He certainly did whenever he had to visit the doctor or a dentist and imagined all the horrible things they could diagnose him with, and then all the horrifically painful treatments. Doing the same over asking out someone you loved as much as she did Ren? It was believable. He could see it happening.

"It'd still hurt if he said no," said Nora.

"Yes, but we could gauge him first. Get an idea for if he'll say yes. Or Jaune can." Pyrrha turned to him when he least expected it. "Jaune and Ren can have boy talk and talk about girls."

"What? Ren and I have never talked about girls."

"Then it's a good time to start! You can have some male bonding time."

Okay. Dream Pyrrha – or someone's version of dream Pyrrha – was a little off-centre. He could imagine Pyrrha thinking these things, but he was sure she'd never come out and say them. Besides, he and Ren had a perfectly solid relationship that didn't involve girls. Except those few times where Jaune had complained to him about a rejection from Weiss which, in hindsight, felt pretty bad. Who was he to complain about a girl making their feelings clear? He should probably apologise for having made Ren feel so awkward.

In real life, though. There's not much point apologising in a dream.

Jaune didn't get the chance anyway because he was suddenly at a dance. Beacon's dance, he supposed. He wasn't sure the dance would look anything like this since it was just a dance floor in the cafeteria. Given Weiss and Yang were arranging the thing, he felt confident saying it would be somewhere a lot nicer. If only so Weiss didn't blow a gasket.

He was dancing with Yang in the dream, and the dance had just come to an end. "You're a good dancer," said his date, dressed in a dark red dress. She'd actually told him she was wearing white so he could know what to match his shirt to, so whomever was dreaming hadn't been privy to that conversation. So, basically, the dream wasn't Yang's.

It didn't narrow it down much.

"I'm going to go find Ruby and make sure she dances," said Yang. "Want to-"

"May I have a dance with the fine blonde lady?" asked a put-on voice. Nora was grinning madly and had an arm around his.

Jaune sighed. "I'm the lady, aren't I?"

"Yep."

Yang laughed. "Ha. Sure. But I want him back when you're done with him. If no one will dance with Ruby then he has to, then it's back to being my date for the night."

"I have Ren anyway. I just want a teammate dance."

Yang winked and shot off in search of her sister while Nora positioned herself in his arms to dance. It was all he could do to catch up with the conversation and try to make some sense of it. "So, uh. Ren, huh? You're here together?"

"Uh. Yeah." Nora cocked her head to the side. "You're the one who asked him on my behalf, remember?"

Not really. He remembered the conversation, so the dream must have skipped past it and assumed he'd asked Ren. Seemingly, Ren had said yes. Good for Nora. But weird for the nightmare. Where was the nightmare in this? He'd thought it Nora's dream, and that the twist would be Ren rejecting her and breaking her heart. Unless Ren was cheating right now. In real life? Never. In a dream? Anything went. Ruby would never ditch Yang in Vale either, but she'd still dreamt of it. There was no reason Nora couldn't have a nightmare where Ren was caught with Pyrrha of all people.

"Where is Ren anyway? Shouldn't you be with him?"

"He's over there." Nora pointed, and sure enough Ren was leaning by a section of wall watching them. He had a drink in hand. "Ren didn't feel up to another dance." Nora clicked her tongue. "I get it, but, ugh. We're finally together-together and he can't even keep up with me."

"Well, you are pretty energetic."

"Spirited!"

"Sure. Let's go with that."

Nora showed just how spirited she was by swinging him around the dance floor for the duration of the song, before rushing off saying she should ask Pyrrha to dance as well. Jaune considered going after Yang but couldn't see her in the crowd, so he made his way over to Ren instead. "Hey. Enjoying the dance?"

"It's crowded," said Ren, sighing. "And I'm exhausted."

"Nora?"

"Hmm. I always knew I'd struggle to keep up with her but..." He closed his eyes and took a drink. "All of this just isn't me."

"What isn't? Nora?"

"No. The going out. Dancing. Drinking. Being around so many people. But it is what Nora likes so I told myself I'd do it. For her. But then I couldn't keep up with her."

Jaune glanced back to the dancefloor. Nora was dancing with Cardin of all people. He had to do a double take at that, since Nora despised the man. If she was ever on a dancefloor with him in real life then it would be to break his legs and try to frame it as an accident, and yet here they were dancing away.

"I wouldn't worry too much. Not many people can keep up with Nora."

"I know that but I'm her boyfriend now, aren't I? I have to be able to keep up with her." He took another drink, then stared down into the glass. "If I can't then I'm not really fit to be with her, am I? Nora will get bored and move on."

"Do you really think-?"

"It's happened before. Nora picks up new hobbies, has fun, then drops them when she's tired. I'm not saying she'd do that with people, but if she grows bored of me because I'm so boring then I wouldn't be surprised if things start to fall apart."

There was a cold logic to what he was saying, and it probably was how most relationships worked. True love was nice and all, but if you were a miserable guy who made everyone around you miserable then you probably shouldn't be surprised when your partner leaves you. There had to be some fun to keep the relationship going so that the bad times could be balanced out against the good. But it felt a little on the nose here.

"You've barely been together any time. Isn't it a little too soon to think of things going wrong?"

"Maybe." Ren smiled. "I guess I'm overthinking things."

"It's called catastrophising."

"Hm?"

"When you constantly make things out in your head to be worse than they really are – or when you start thinking of something you want, and you keep going through all the worst-case scenarios and scare yourself away." Jaune shrugged at his friend's surprised expression. "It's something I was reading up on. I figured it applied here."

"I... I suppose it does. Catastrophising. Hmm." Ren closed his eyes. "Maybe I am making thing out to be worse in my head. Especially when it comes to Nora. I really want the best for her. After everything she's been through she deserves so much more."

"You should go and dance with her."

"Why? Doesn't she look happier like this?"

The dance exploded into white light.

/-/

Jaune blinked himself awake, laid back on his bed in the dark, and feeling more than a little confused. As dreams went, that had to be the most low-key and odd one he'd had yet. At least with Velvet and the strange twins from before he could understand why they were nightmares. Monsters, naughty twins, and you being blamed for things you hadn't done. Childish, but understandable. This one hardly even felt like a nightmare at all. Hell, it hardly even felt like a dream. It had just been a normal day in the life of Team JNPR.

Some sheets a bed or two over moved and a dark shape rose in the dark and made their way to the bathroom. The light flicked on, silhouetting Ren against the doorway before he closed it and moved inside. A tap ran for a few long seconds. Jaune checked his scroll to see it was just gone five in the morning. Too early for anyone to be awake.

That dream was Ren's, then. It ended because he woke up early.

It felt a little less strange for the dream to be so low-key when it was Ren involved. The guy never really reacted to much of anything, and was as cool as a cucumber most times. Horror movie monsters weren't going to spook him, but he wasn't what about that dream had. Or if it had at all. Maybe Ren was just so immovable that even his nightmares couldn't get a hold of him. Jaune wasn't convinced given that Ren was washing his face for this long. He pushed his own covers back, and stood just as Ren came out the bathroom and paused.

"Did I wake you?" whispered Ren.

"I was already up," lied Jaune, quietly. "My sleep schedule is all out of whack."

Ren chuckled and nodded toward the door. "I'm going for a walk. Want to join me?"

It didn't take long to get dressed and they got out without waking the female members of the team; everyone had to get used to sleeping in teams since joining Beacon, so even the lightest sleepers had learned to just roll over and go back to sleep if someone woke them up. Like he'd said in his dream, it wasn't every day that he and Ren had time together to just talk. Ren came with Nora attached, and he was quiet at other times. Jaune was content to say they were good friends but they weren't the kind of guys to huddle behind the bike shed talking about girls.

"Did you have trouble sleeping?" asked Jaune. It was clumsy but it was a start, and at least he had an excuse for his sleep given how much time he'd spent sleeping in the infirmaries.

"Just some silly dreams," said Ren. "Once I'm awake, I'm awake, and I can never get back to sleep again."

"I bet Nora's snoring doesn't help."

"Actually, I'm used to that. It's comforting, sometimes, to know someone else is there." Ren chuckled under his breath. "I don't think you'd understand it if you hadn't been in our shoes."

"I guess not. It still amazes me the two of you could make it so far on your own."

"It was a miracle. Pure luck that my Semblance unlocked. I can't say it was any skill or hard work on our part. That's the terrifying part, I suppose. We won a lottery on survival that we shouldn't have, and it would have been so easy for that not to happen."

"Do you think of that a lot?"

"Not always – and not in a bad way. I'm grateful for the good fortune we had. Neither of us would be here without it. If anything, I'm constantly amazed at just how lucky we got. That's part of what we had to become huntsmen. A chance like that, when so many others don't get it, would be wasted if we didn't use it in some way."

"Makes sense."

"Does it?"

"I mean, it's not healthy and you don't owe the world anything. But I can understand why you'd want to help people in the same situation who aren't going to get by on a deus ex machina semblance unlocking."

Ren laughed, louder this time. "You do understand. Somehow, I thought you would."

"Ren." Jaune couldn't keep it in any longer. "Can I ask you a question?"

"What about?"

"Love. Girls."

Ren stopped walking. Jaune did, too. There was a sudden tension in the man's pink eyes that Jaune didn't think he'd ever seen before. It wasn't panic, not really, but there was anxiety there. Ren was coiled tight like a spring, fists clenched, but he forced out a calm answer. "Sure. What is it?"

He couldn't ask about Nora. Not when Ren looked so agitated.

Jaune blurted out the next best thing.

"Does Pyrrha have feelings for me?"

He offered a silent apology for throwing Pyrrha under the bus like this, but it wasn't like he didn't want to know the answer. Ren visibly relaxed, his chest deflating as he exhaled. His hands unclenched and he crossed his arms, resting his weight on one foot. Ren wouldn't say it but he was obviously relieved by the question.

"I had a feeling you'd noticed."

"I'm not sure what I've noticed to be honest. I got the... the idea she might be, but then she didn't react to any of the hints I put out." He paused, then asked, "They were pretty obvious, right? I wasn't being too subtle."

"Oh, they were obvious." Ren was smiling faintly. "They were so thick I nearly choked on them."

"I figured as much. But Pyrrha didn't react so I assumed I had the wrong of it."

Ren's eyes slowly closed. "It really isn't my place to say... but if I don't, and Pyrrha won't, then will it ever be said at all? Yes, she had – has – feelings for you. I know Nora and some others will say it's so obvious you should have realised it months ago, but I know how hard it is to notice things like that when you're the one involved."

Damn it. Jaune ran a hand through his hair. "How upset was she when I told you all I was going with Yang yesterday?"

"You don't want the answer to that." Shit. The worst response. "But if I can be frank, I don't think you can blame yourself for whatever she feels," said Ren. "You gave Pyrrha multiple opportunities. You tried. Yes, you hinted instead of just saying, but at least you put some effort in. I know for a fact Nora was working on Pyrrha and trying to get it into her thick head that she should take the hint and ask you to the dance."

Nora was? Good old Nora.

"Why didn't she?"

"I don't know. Maybe she felt the man should ask; maybe she was worried you wouldn't want to; maybe she kept convincing herself it wouldn't work out." Ren clicked his tongue. "Pyrrha was probably catastrophising the whole thing."

Jaune stilled. He'd never heard Ren use that word, and never even heard of it himself before he read it in those psychology books. Jaune played dumb. "Catastrophising? What's that?"

"It's where a person thinks of how everything can go wrong in their heads." Ren gave almost the same explanation that he had given Ren in the dream. It had been his dream. "I can only assume Pyrrha lost her nerve every time. I hope you're not planning to dump Yang and ask her out, though."

"No." Not after witnessing Yang's nightmares. He didn't think she was in love with him or anything, but she had issues about people backing out on her, or so it seemed, and Jaune wasn't about to be another person who did that. "I can't back out on Yang. And I wouldn't."

"Good. As horrible as this sounds, Pyrrha needs a wake-up call. You're a guy regularly surrounded by six other women, and in a school where our lives are on the line. It wasn't like you were going to stay single forever."

"That's... surprisingly nice to hear. I didn't realise you had such faith in me."

"You had no hope with Weiss."

"Ouch."

"But I always kind of assumed it would be Ruby you'd end up with."

"Ruby!? She's fifteen!"

"In a year, I meant. I figured with you two being such close friends and sharing hobbies that Ruby might develop an interest in you after she reached sixteen. It's not like she has many other boys that she talks to. That was, of course, assuming Pyrrha didn't muster up the nerve to confess to you. Nora held out on that."

Ruby in a year, huh? He could sort of see it. He didn't think Ruby had any interest in him now – or any interest in anyone, to be honest. Ruby was just so into becoming a huntress that she didn't have time for anything else. If she ever was going to look at guys, though, he could imagine him and Ren being the first to catch her eye, if only because neither would require introducing herself to anyone new. Either way, he could agree with Ren that the first assumption of who he'd go to the dance with wouldn't be Yang Xiao-Long of all people. He was punching well above his weight there.

"I don't mean to sound cruel to Pyrrha," said Ren. "It must sound like I'm blaming her for losing out. That's not the case. I just knew that if you weren't going to ask, and she wasn't going to ask, that nothing would ever get done."

"Why didn't you ever get involved on our behalf?" asked Jaune, remembering the dream. In that, he and Pyrrha had been the ones to set them up, and he was curious to see what Ren thought of that in his own dream. He'd not had a chance to witness it.

"Nora suggested it but I told her not to. I despise the idea of meddling in another's relationship."

Ah. Well... That explained that one. "Yeah? How come?"

"A relationship is a deeply personal thing. My parents..." He trailed off, and then recovered and forged ahead. "I always remember my parents and how happy they were together. I remember the stories they told of how they met. They were old-fashioned village folk, but one thing that stuck with me was when my father told me that nothing worth having in life is easy. He said that the hardest thing he'd ever had to do was face his fears and confess to my mother, and that it took him months to muster the nerve. I respected that. It made them feel more real." Ren shrugged. "Perhaps I'm projecting a little but I feel that a relationship would be less real if it was set up by someone else. Would it really be you and Pyrrha together if Nora and I were the ones to make it happen? What happens later when a similar problem comes up and neither of you know how to deal with it? We can't be there to hold your hands and take you through it all."

"I'm not that useless."

"I know." Ren smiled faintly. "I just meant it as an example. I feel that hurdles in life are something a person needs to get over on their own. Teamwork is fine when it's a team issue, and I'm not saying everyone has to struggle on their own, but surely a relationship between two people is for those two people to address? It shouldn't require intervention to work."

It was an oddly old-fashioned stance to take, like Ren had said. He wondered if Ren would be against him and Yang going to the dance if he'd known Blake had helped set it up. Probably. It wasn't like Jaune couldn't see what he was getting at, either. Relationships inevitably had their downs as well as their ups, and if you couldn't handle those without outside help then that was a bad sign. It was the difference between facing your problems head on or asking for help.

"I don't fully agree," said Jaune. Ren looked interested but not offended. That was good. "I get that sometimes it's best for people to handle things on their own, but there are also times when it can hurt more to try and power ahead on your own."

He'd seen too much of the dreams of his friends to take the stance of standing back and letting them suffer on their own. Did that make him nosey? Probably. Did that make him intrusive? Certainly. None of them had really asked for him to come wading into their problems, but he'd be damned if he stood back and did nothing.

"But," added Jaune. "I won't force myself into your problems if you don't want me to. You can't expect me to sit back and do nothing if I see you in trouble, though."

"I would never ask you to." Ren smiled, eyes closed. "I'm sorry if what I said sounded too combative. What I really meant is that I don't want anyone to try and interfere with my relationship. You're not stupid, so I'm sure you know what I mean."

"You and Nora?"

"Yes."

Well, the instructions were pretty clear on that one. Dream or not, he wasn't to interfere. Jaune nodded. "All right. I'll leave that one be. But if you do want to talk, or even to just bounce ideas off me, then that's cool. I want you to be happy."

"I want Nora to be happy," said Ren. "I'm just not convinced that being with me will equate to that. I can't give her what she wants." His expression hardened. "What she deserves. And even if she would say she'd take whatever I could give her, I hate to imagine her lowering herself to settle with me. Not when there are better people out there."

"Name one."

"Jaune Arc."

Jaune froze, then burst out laughing. "Bullshit! Me? Ha. You must be joking." Ren's face was serious. "Okay, not joking. Just horribly, hopelessly incorrect."

"I'm not saying Nora feels that way about you, Jaune. Relax. You're not in that bad of a love triangle. I only meant that I'd have been happy if she did, because I know you'd treat her well."

Okay, that he could accept. Jaune tapped his wildly pounding heart. "You scared the daylights out of me there. I saw my life flash before my eyes."

Ren's eyes were dancing. "My apologies."

"Still, any advice on what to do about Pyrrha?"

"Be a friend. Be as you've always been. Go to the dance with Yang. It isn't like you're getting married or hurting her, and you embarrassed yourself to give her enough openings that she didn't once take. Pyrrha still has plenty of chances to come out to you if she wants to, and perhaps this will be the wakeup call she needs." Ren cocked his head, and asked, "But let me ask you: do you like Pyrrha that way?"

"I don't know. Maybe? I'm not in love with her like I thought I was Weiss, but then I don't feel that way about Yang either. We just like one another and are seeing if anything comes from that. I'd have gone with Pyrrha if she asked, though."

"I see. Think carefully on it," advised Ren. "It's one thing to go with Yang and have that not work out – you're on different teams and don't have to be in one another's face all day every day. It'll feel very different if you and Pyrrha date and it ends badly. You're teammates. Partners. And I happen to like Team JNPR. I'd hate to see a situation where Nora and I are forced to pick sides."

"I wouldn't want to put either of you in that situation."

"Thank you." Ren nodded. "And for this. Talking like this was pleasant. We should do it again some time."

"Yeah. It's nice to have someone I can be 100% blunt with."

Ren smiled back. "I feel the same way. I'm going to go clear my head outside. Privately, if that's okay."

"Sure thing. I'll be in the library and swing back to the cafeteria for breakfast. I'll see you around."

It was hard not to think on what Ren had said in the library, and how despite having a glimpse into his friend's mind thanks to his Semblance, he shouldn't act on it. Privacy was just that at the end of the day, and no matter how good his intentions, Ren had made it clear he didn't want help.

A part of him thought Ren's view unhealthy, another part thought it almost sounded like his own excuses when he refused to accept help with Cardin. It wasn't, though. Ren didn't want to run away from his problems, but to find a way to make him and Nora work without help. Because they might not always have help available. It was frustrating to know they both liked one another and to not be able to do anything about it, but the issues went deeper than that.

Ren's nightmare hadn't been about Nora saying no; it had been about Nora saying yes. That made things so much more complicated. Did Ren fear he wasn't good enough? Did he know they wouldn't work out? Did he have confidence issues? Did he know more about what Nora wanted than Jaune ever could? The latter was almost certainly true.

"Jaune...?"

The voice had him glancing up. He was surprised to see brown hair and ears. "Velvet?"

The faunus stepped into the small alcove he'd taken over with a weak smile, drew out a seat and took it. "I thought it was you. You're up early."

"Got too much sleep yesterday and woke up early. You?"

Velvet laughed awkwardly. "I had a nightmare."

Shit.

"I'm sorry."

"What?" Velvet looked surprised. "Why are you apologising? It's not your fault." She poked at her cheeks, which were flaming red. "I stayed up late watching horror movies with my team again. Coco always gets off on finding the most horrifying movies she can."

"You should tell her you don't want to watch them."

"It's not like I don't enjoy them... It's just the nightmares after that aren't fun. I don't even know why I have them when I'm a huntress. I'm not afraid of Grimm with razor sharp claws but a man in a mask with a knife spooks me. It's so stupid."

"I don't think dreams are meant to make sense."

"They're probably not."

Velvet was watching him closely. He did his best to act like he hadn't noticed. Was she testing him, or was she thinking how strange it was for him to have been in her dream in the first place? Either was bad. It was a wonder more people hadn't questioned him about their dreams, but the members of Team RWBY and JNPR probably didn't see a close friend in their dreams as anything too unusual. The more this spread, the worse the suspicion would get.

"So, you decided to come read the morning away?"

Velvet hummed and showed him her book. Jaune could have screamed. The title read "On Dreams and their Meanings". Velvet was smiling brightly. "I've been looking into dreams. I guess you could say the ones I've had recently have had me curious to learn more about them."

"Y-Yeah? T-That's good. Admirable. Ahah." Jaune looked away. Crap, crap, crap. "B-But don't get too caught up in dreams, hey? You need to pay attention to the real world as well and-"

He froze, his blue eyes meeting odd ones through a gap in the bookshelf where a book had been removed. Two eyes, one pink, one brown.

They blinked suddenly and were green.

Had he seen them wrong?

"Um..." Jaune raised a hand to the girl blinking on the other side. "Hello?"

A flash of black hair, a patter of feet, and she was gone. Jaune stared at the empty space, wondering just how long she'd been watching him, how he hadn't noticed, and why she'd be watching him at all. It was the same girl that Yang had pointed out. He was certain he hadn't been in the dreams of anyone like her.

"What was all that about?" asked Velvet.

"I have no idea..."

Velvet doing research; Neo also doing research - of a sort ;)