Goofy Sleepy Jaune

Relief

Once he had recovered, Jaune was back in his room and this time the door was closed.
Nora was sitting behind him with her legs crossed to nestle against the nape of his neck, caressing his cheeks with a gentle, affectionate touch.

'Where... where am I...?'

'In our room, we're safe here... you should have heard the mess Weiss planted...'

A laugh born in jest was soon interrupted at the thought of how out of place it was at that moment.

'In any case, Ren and Pyrrha are talking with Professor Goodbitch to make some clarification. They should be back soon with a surprise...'

Of the two, it was only Nora who had the energy and the curiosity to get her hands on that surprise, but that was precisely why she was working on doubling her happiness to share it with her leader.

'I don't deserve any surprises... Ruby, how is she...?'

'She's fine... the fact that you are a dummy still allowed her to forgive you. Pyrrha talked to her with Ren. They both made her realize that what happened was an unfortunate accident.'

A shadow darkened Jaune's face, and surrounded by a halo of light, Nora's head appeared above Jaune's, showing a more stern and serious expression.

'Because an accident may happen, but it can't be repeated, right, Jaune?'

'W-Well, yes! Do you think I don't feel bad about what I did?!'

'Well then, you'll have a way to apologize to her later, but right now we have to let the others have time to cover your back from the professors.'

Such an easy solution for something so complex. It sounded strange, wrong, unfair.

'I want to see her.'

'You're not going anywhere now. Your nice little scene in the hallway gave Weiss a way to be able to gossip about you to some of the other students.'

'W-What???'

Exasperated by all the noise, Nora slammed a hand over Jaune's mouth, forcefully plugging it shut and stifling those disconnected gasps.

'Blake and Yang are taking care of it. Seriously, Jaune, relax. You haven't done anything irreparable and if you don't mess up any further, everything will be back to the way it was.'

The boy's gaze was now more serene from that umpteenth reassurance, but his eyes continued incessantly to ask for confirmation.

A couple of hours passed before there was a knock at the door. Jaune tried to be the first to get up, but was electrocuted by a punch in his face. It was Nora who opened the door and spoke to a girl he couldn't see from the bed. Nora smiled and with a tug pulled a startled Ruby into the room.
Silence once again filled the room, but this time it was softer, lighter. It swirled over their heads, but slowly gathered their thoughts and granted them to each other in an exchange of glances. A sketch of a smile, and from the tears of both emerged a faint, liberating laugh.

'Well, I think I'll leave you two to chat for a while-...'

An escape halted from noticing someone else beyond the door. It had to be someone threatening to make Nora retrace her steps. With a grumble she then decided to stay inside, crossing her arms and closing the door again.

'Phew... Yaaang!'

Ruby immediately realized the origin of that change of mood and ran out to go and scold her sister, while Nora took the opportunity to approach Jaune and smile at him with a caress on his cheek.

'Did you see that nothing happened...?'

'It could have been a lot worse...'

'You could have been a bigger douche, but you're not... because you're Jaune.' She concluded with a few pats on his cheek, then stepped out to make sure everything was OK.

Finally free of all those thoughts, so light and happily empty, he let himself be cuddled once more by those blankets and... after a careful sniff, he decided to pick them up and set them on fire take them to the laundry room to have them washed.
Walking out into the hallway, he had to pass under the gazes of Yang, Ruby, and Nora. The first is in a strange mixture of anger and relief, the other two more natural and true to their usual behavior. A shiver ran down his spine, as if someone else was watching him, but apart from them there was no one... so... he decided to move on, hurrying his pace.