Smooth... Ish... First Impressions

If there was one thing you were not prone to do, it was miscalculation.

"J-Just remember, Ruby already thinks of you as a-a friend," Papaya encourages you.

"Or at least a friendly acquaintance," Rica throws out there, which does absolutely nothing for your confidence.

"Just be y-yourself," Papaya adds softly.

"But not too much like yourself, that you come off as too eager," Seneca tacks on her own advice.

"Play hard to get," Rica agrees.

"But not so much that you seem disinterested," Seneca further advises.

You barely hold in a sigh. They'd been like this the whole time since you'd all arrived at the dorm. When you asked them for help getting ready, you'd imagined you'd all go back to the dorm, you'd shower, change, perhaps put on some nice smelling cologne and they'd give you a pep talk.

"Oh! Breath mints!" Rica exclaims as she presses a small tin case into your hands, which you accept with a raised eyebrow. "Just in case."

You pop one in your mouth, pocketing the rest.

"Smile," Papaya orders you.

You do so, only to be caught off guard as Seneca grabs your face and starts inspecting your mouth. "Good, nothing stuck in your teeth."

All three of them are looking you over with a critical eye, accessing once more, for the one hundredth time, whether or not you pass muster.

When asking your teammates for help getting ready for your "captain's meeting" with Ruby, you failed to take into account one glaringly obvious detail. You were the only male on an otherwise all female team. It was times like these that reenforced the fact that certain words and phrases, despite being exactly identical in content, often have skewed meanings when crossing the gender divide. Even tomboyish Rica could be frighteningly girlish at times, and this was one such occurance.

As expected, when you reached the dorm, you showered. However, while you were showering, the girls felt like they had carte blache to your clothes, something Seneca and Papaya did with seemingly unnatural (to you) glee. You acquiesced to changing your outfit no more than three times, but did model said outfits for your teammates. And while you did allow Rica to style your hair, you drew a hard line at getting a full blown make over, complete with exfoliating mud mask and no amount of pouting from Papaya, wheedling from Seneca, and straight up shots to your manhood from Rica could make you do otherwise.

After several more adjustments that you suffered through, you managed to arrive at Team RWBY's dorm at 5:45. While you didn't get the pep talk you'd expected, your teammates' actions had kept your mind off your anxiety, which was beginning to crop back up as you approached the door. After taking a deep breath to steady yourself, you gave the door three sharp knocks.

"You're here!" exclaims an excited familiar voice and for the second time you are caught off guard as you are pulled into the dorm room by Nora Valkyrie. Much to your surprise, both Teams RWBY and JNPR are in attendance. Between the two bunkbeds, you instantly spot Arc, trying and failing to be menacing as he sharpens his sword in the middle of the room. The next person you spot is Ren, sitting on the bottom bunk on the left side of the room, who is disinterestedly flipping through a RvB comic.

It's at this point that you blink.

Once.

Twice.

Your eyes are not deceiving you as you take in the bunk bed set up. You can't help but marvel at how insanely dangerous the whole set up looks, as the top bunk on the left side is suspended over the bottom one and the top bunk on the right side is held up by books.

"These can't even be remotely called stable," you comment.

Belladona, who is engrossed in a novel on what you presume to be her bunk, replies. "It hasn't failed yet."

"What if you want to read..." You take a moment to scan a title of a book the top bunk is proped up on and blink at the title. "Ninjas of Passion."

You take some satisfaction at seeing Belladonna blush behind her book as she simultaneously attempts to both hid behind the book, while trying to hide the cover from your inquisitive eyes. "Th-the o-other books in the series are roughly the same size."

You smirk as she avoids your gaze. Still, she's Ruby's teammate and Ruby's sister's partner, so you offer her an out, of sorts. "Paps seems to like Ninjas of Lust best."

"I-I prefer the first one," Belladonna replies, slightly stumbling over the words. You have to fight down your amusement so as not to embarass the bookworm of Team RWBY further as that's precisely the book she's reading. Having seen Papaya read the books of that particular series so often, you'd recognize the back cover of Ninjas of Love anywhere.

A clearing of the throat alerts you to another occupant of the room, one that actually lives in this dorm- Weiss Schnee. The Schnee Heiress is looking down on you as if you are not even remotely worth her time and that you should be extra thankful to be allowed within her presence. For all the confidence you'd gained in your moment of teasing levity with Belladonna, you come almost completely undone at Schnee's imperious glare.

Despite her friendly demeanor around those she calls her closest and dearest friends, which primarily consists of Teams RWBY and JNPR, along with select members of a few other teams, her "Ice Queen" reputation is well earned. This is actually a point of contention between your two teams as both Schnee and Rica will often attempt to "out bitch" each other- something that has, on a number of occasions, resulted in series of non-lethal honor duals in combat class. While Schnee's rapier wit is sharp and her tongue sharper still, Rica gives far better than she gets on the battlefield, more often than not coming out the victor in their spats. Whenever members of Teams RWBY and JSPR are paired up with one another in class, under NO circumstances are Schnee and Rica to be paired under any circumstance unless both you and Ruby are there to play peacemaker between them.

"So, what makes you think you're worthy of Ruby's time on this... Joint venture..." Schnee demands almost sneering. She makes you feel as if you were little more than a couple inches tall. She is also, much like you have been, very careful not to use the term 'date'.

"Uh... I... You see... W-We're... Friends?" You cringe as that comes out more of a question than a statement, "A-and team captains..."

Schnee actually manages to look far less impressed than you feel impressive. If anything, you feel like you are far lamer than Arc could ever be.

However, this downward spiral of your thought process is completely derailed by Valkyrie, who promptlt glomps onto Schnee, wrapping an arm around the rich bitch. "Loosen up, Weiss Queen!"

You can't help but smile at the byplay, as Schnee attempts to shrug Valkyrie off while trying to maintain a dignified poise. She fails miserably.

"He's always seemed to be a good guy," Valkyrie states, seeminglyvouching for you. "And if on the off chance we're wrong about him... We'll... BREAK HIS LEGS!" She makes this declaration with more glee than you think is warranted.

This is all said with accompanying grandoise arm movements and gestures with the usual near infinite energy the girl seems to possess. You have a newfound respect for Lie Ren who, for all intents and purposes, is Valkyrie's handler. It takes a great deal of considerable willpower not to flinch at the crazed look in her eye.

The moment is interupted by Nikos who is nearly squeeing with joy as she grings at you as she practically dances out of the Team RWBY bathroom. She is followed soon after by Ruby's sister Yang, who acts as a herald. "Ladies and Gentlemen! May I present to you, the most fantablous of fabulous team captain's ever... Ruuuuuubbbbbbbbyyyyy Rose!"

"Yang!" complains the unseen Ruby. Yang merely rolls her eyes, and drags her sister out into the room for your perusal. For a moment, you forget how to breathe as you're breath hitches for a moment.

Ruby blushes cutely under your scrutiny. "H-Hi...?"

"Y-You look... Beautiful..." You compliment her, before your brain catches up with you in the moment. "I... I mean... Yeah..."

"Th-thanks..." Ruby stutters.

Out of the corner of your eye, you notices Yang grinning an a self satisfied manner and Nikos practically has hearts in her eyes.

"Sh-Shall we...?" You stutter back, internally gringing at how smooth you're not. Still, you manage to hold out your arm for her and you can tell that both Valkyrie and Nikos and even Belladonna each seem to have to surpress the urge to say 'aw' as Ruby accepts your arm.

"Y-Yes..." Ruby replies. The two of you are both very aware of the eyes of both Ruby's team and her sister team on watching your every move as you both walk out the door, arm in arm.

"Oh, Josh-ey!" Valkyrie calls out. You and Ruby both turn towards her as her weapon, Magnild unfolds and she gives you a particularly bloodthirsty grin. She doesn't say anything and she doesn't have to. Her whole demeanor says it all and it's all you can do to not show any weakness.

You're not sure if you succeed or not, but never-the-less, the message is received and you and Ruby are on your way to your date.