The Oblivious One
Spying Neptune enjoying himself and laughing with Blake and Sun despite having rejected Weiss, the spark of anger and jealousy in Jaune further flared up. "Hold my punch!" Handing his cup of punch to Ruby, who gracefully accepted it without question or complaint, Jaune moved through the crowded dance floor to berate Neptune for declining to go to the dance with Weiss. Five feet away, he gave pause as he spied Pyrrha going up the stairs, alone, and quite possibly not looking too happy.
It was a split second decision. He was sure Pyrrha was actually enjoying herself and just getting a breath of fresh air. Despite the fame that accompanied her, she didn't really like being around a lot of people, which was why she tended to only hang out with the other members of JNPR or RWBY and was the first person out of class most times. Besides, her date would be far more capable of consoling her than him. And this was his chance to show Weiss that he really cared about her!
Storming over to Neptune, he had half a mind to lecture him right then and there for his actions, but he calmed down enough to realize that causing a scene wasn't doing anyone any favors. Controlling himself, he politely asked to speak to Neptune alone, outside. Sun and Blake had raised eyes at this, but as Neptune cordially agreed to his demands, they didn't press him for an explanation right then and there, but Jaune could feel Blake's eyes on him and he was pretty sure that the other unsettling feeling he was getting was from Sun. He wondered if it had to do with their Faunus heritage and if they could pick up on things because of that or not. Drat. He really should've paid more attention in class.
"Hey, uh... Jaune, right?" asked Neptune, calm and collected as ever.
"Yeah..." sighed Jaune, struggling to not outright yell at Neptune.
"So what'd you want to talk about?" he asked, head swiveling as he met some girl's gaze and smiled at her. "There are some pretty cute girls here, huh?"
It annoyed Jaune to no end that Neptune was so openly flirting with another girl so soon after turning down Weiss, who had sounded genuinely interested in Neptune when she asked him to go to the dance with her. "Is that all you think about?!" snapped Jaune as Neptune smiled at yet another girl heading inside for the dance.
Neptune just gave him a dumbfounded look. "Huh?"
"Do you even care about the girls you're hitting on? How they feel about you?" he continued, giving Neptune a cold, hard, accusatory look. He himself was a little surprised at his own boldness, but this was for Weiss' sake and he wasn't going to back down. Rejecting Weiss because he wasn't interested was one thing, but flirting with her, making her think he was into her, and then rejecting her was another thing altogether.
"Whoa, where's this coming from?!" asked Neptune, clearly confused at Jaune's sudden callousness. This was not the same Jaune he had met in the library or heard about from RWBY.
"How could you just turn her down like that?!" finished Jaune angrily.
"Wait, w-who?" Honestly, the nerve of this guy... He could understand what Weiss had seen in him, but he couldn't understand why she was going to beat herself up over him if he was this much of a jerk! And just how many girls were asking Neptune out to the dance for him to not even remember Weiss asking him? Come on, this was Weiss they were talking about! Weiss Schnee!
"Weiss," answered an exasperated Jaune.
A spark of guilt lit up in his eyes and Neptune became uneasy and avoided Jaune's gaze. "I, uh... it uh... it just didn't work out, you know?" he finally answered, a hand rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly.
"What? You think you're too cool? Too many other options?" Seriously, why did Weiss like someone like Neptune? Of all the girls at the academy Weiss had personally asked him to attend the dance with her. She had pushed aside tradition and her pride to pluck up the nerve to ask him to the dance herself, in person, only to have him refuse. And then he had the nerve to just completely ignore her at the dance and hang out with her teammate like nothing had happened while she pointedly avoided not only him, but her teammate too! Jaune might have been more willing to forgive him and let it slide by if he hadn't so obviously flirted with her the first time they had met in the library--even stealing his line and calling Weiss a "Snow Angel."
Admittedly, he was pretty jealous of Neptune. The guy was more or less everything he wanted to be. He was not only cool, but also smart. He had a way with the ladies and unlike him, he had probably actually earned his spot at Haven, so he was a pretty good fighter to boot. He had managed to win Weiss' affection too, even being able to call her Snow Angel without it somehow being considered an insult. Weiss paid more attention to Neptune in the few days that he'd been around than she had to him all semester. Sure, things in life weren't always fair, but at least he usually knew why. But this? How does anyone justify liking a jerk? What about Neptune had caught Weiss' eye?