WS15

The prize! Jaune nodded, both in acceptance and thanks, as he pushed his way through the crowd and toward the jewelled throne where that most incredible of treasures lay. One or two children had their faces pressed to the glass, but none dared stand between him and the machine that would count and allocate his prize.

His hand slammed down onto it.

At the exact same moment Ren's did.

"Hmm…" Ren looked up to him, pink eyes meeting blue. "It seems we're matched again, Jaune. I take it you have the two hundred and fifty tickets required?"

"Yeah. You as well?"

"Naturally…" Ren looked to the machine and then back to him. "I guess that means our competition comes in as a draw. Somehow I can't help but think that sounds fitting."

"But there's only one top prize," Jaune said. He bit down on his lower lip. He'd worked so hard to try and win it for Yang, to fulfil the task almost every book he'd ever read had labelled as necessary for a date to be successful. You had to win a prize for whomever you took, it was just the law. Ruby's words had only forced that message home. He wanted to win it for Yang, even if this whole date thing was just a case of him being polite and accepting her offer. She was a friend and he still wanted to make her date a special one. "I don't know what to do," Jaune said. Ren smiled.

"I do." Ren pulled his hand away and stepped back.

"Ren…" Jaune's voice came out small and brittle, mixed with emotion he wasn't sure he could place. Ren was… he was going to stand back and let him have the top prize? There was something in his throat, and Jaune had to swallow it down before he could continue. "Are you sure?"

"The competition is a draw," Ren said, with a pleased smile. "The prize, however… you have a good reason to want it and I respect that. I don't have a date to impress, and as Yang's partner, I'd like to see her happy too." On the outskirts, Jaune noticed Yang waving her arms wildly back and forth in front of her. He waved back.

"Ren, I… that's… I don't know what to say."

"Perhaps I'll find someone like that for myself one day," Ren continued, "but until then, I think you should be the one to take the main prize. I don't have anyone interested in me that way who I could give it to."

"N-Nora," Blake gasped, struggling in the orange-haired girl's suddenly iron grip. "Y-You're c-choking me."

"Has no one," Nora whispered. "Give gift away… nothing for poor old Nora…"

Jaune looked back to Ren and smiled. He took a step forward and held his hand up. Ren met it, the two clasping fists as their wrists met. Jaune didn't think he'd ever felt closer to another man than at that very moment. Ren wasn't just a friend… he was a brother. "Thank you, Ren," he whispered.

"Remy. Make a note. We're going to introduce Ren to my sisters."

"Why? I thought you liked this guy."

"As a potential suitor, idiot."

"I repeat, I thought you liked this guy."

Bah, Remy didn't know what he was talking about. His sisters were wonderful and Ren would be blessed to have one of them fall for him. He'd need to take a picture of the team leader later and send it over to their scrolls. He's mature, so maybe Sapphire or Sable would suit him. He's fairly handsome too. I bet Lavender would blush up a storm. Hmm, that mysterious edge would probably get Coral excited too.

So many options... well, seven - but he could always consider his Big Sis too.

Jaune shook his head and stepped back, releasing his new metaphorical (and maybe one-day marital) brother. He turned back to the machine and filtered his tickets through the slot. The number beeped to tell him he had the requisite amount, and then asked him to put the code in for the prize. He did so with shaking fingers. The machine flashed.

"PRIZE NOT FOUND."

"Eh?" Jaune looked up, eyes wide. The stuffed Beowolf toy, which had been there less than a minute ago, was nowhere to be seen.

Someone else had claimed it while they'd been distracted.

										[...]

Cinder sighed and downed her glass. How nice the image was, but it just wouldn't work. She needed Neo for the later stages of her plans, and needed Roman currently as well. Until such a time as they became expendable, she wouldn't be able to harm either.

Jaune would complain as well, she could just tell.

"Don't kill her, Big Sis – she's nice and cute."

"Cinder! You're scaring her."

"Don't be mean to Neo, Big Sis!"

She growled angrily. Damn him, damn her and damn Salem for even having him in the first place. Hopefully Emerald and Mercury would come up with something on his friends soon, that way she could approach them or deal with them as necessity demanded. She placed the flute down on the table and turned about – only to freeze.

Since when had there been a six-foot tall stuffed Beowolf teddy on Neo's bed?