Mute Date
Summary: When Jaune saves a girl from being mugged in an alley, he finds himself stuck with a rather eccentric companion…
"H-hey! Stop it y-you...baddie!"
Shortly afterwards, Jaune found himself leaning against a brick alley wall, his back stuck in an uncomfortable angle. When the captain of Team JNPR saw a lady in need, he leapt in to rescue her from the thugs attempting to mug her. A black eye, a stolen wallet, with plenty of boot marks and a heavily beaten pride was all he got in return.
"Owie, owie, owie," Jaune groaned as he clutched a bruise on his arm. With the wall for support, Jaune got to his feet. "Damn ruffians…," said Jaune with a sigh. They were local hooligans, civilians without mastery over any speck of aura. They were just like Jaune before… but with Pyrrha's guidance, he not only knew how to use his aura but he also learned responsibility.
But damn, did Jaune want to cut some of their heads off.
"Stupid teenagers… wait… I'm a teenager. Gosh darn it," Jaune cursed.
He looked over to the girl that was just recently accosted. She appeared perfectly fine, though wearing a strange getup. It was part labcoat, part business attire, with a bunch of necklaces and a pretty umbrella on a sunny day.
Plus her head looked like a strawberry, vanilla, chocolate ice cream and hair love child.
"You okay?" Jaune asked. The sight of anyone hurting a woman struck a nerve with Jaune. With seven sisters and a rather overprotective mother, it was natural for Jaune to enter 'knight in shining armor' mode.
The girl tilted a head and offered a smile.
"Uh… is that a yes? Maybe? I don't think it's a no." Jaune kept looking at her confused, the girl wouldn't talk but approached him step by step.
Step by step, she got closer.
Until her nose to his nose was but an inch away. This girl was pretty rude and knew nothing about the social-cultural context of personal space which was being ruthlessly trespassed by her.
"I'm just going to assume you're okay," said Jaune as he began limping away onto the sidewalk. He better catch the airship back, the weekend plan of hanging out at the mall to pick up cute girls ended up in failure. Worst than that, he got beat up on the way back to the dorms.
Better get back and have Pyrrha check out this bruise, Jaune thought sadly.
But Jaune could advance no further. There was a small tug on his sleeve.
There was the girl still with her wordless smile. Her umbrella was opened and hung over her shoulder, as she twisted her waist in a half-circle motion. From the casual observer, it would look like a girlfriend catching her lover leaving prematurely.
"Uh… is there anything else you want?"
The girl continued smiling, tugging him gently. Her eye color changed with each blink, from pink to white to black. She took a step back, tugging him a bit harder. It appeared as if she was guiding him somewhere.
"You want me to follow you?"
The strange girl nodded happily and her hand slide down from Jaune's sleeve to hand. With a clutch on his hand and an even stronger pull, Jaune was thus dragged off to a local confectionary where he was treated to a variety of sweets and desserts by the mysterious girl who said nothing.
She must have deep pockets, Jaune thought as he watched her scarf down mountain after mountain of sugary delights. Picking at a Schnee Frozen Banana, Jaune could only wonder who in the world was this girl. Whoever she was, Jaune supposed this was her way of saying thanks.
"No problem," Jaune said awkwardly. "If you ever need help, just… ask? Wait, you don't talk. Okay, how about you text me? Or like… write me a note?"
The girl looked up with a mouth covered in banana cream pie but had a shining big smile. She nodded eagerly before there was a sparkle in her eye.
She noticed something. The girl leaned forward, in a repeat violation of personal space. Her eyes appeared pink and black this time.
"Huh? What is it?"
Without a sound, the girl swiped Jaune's face with a single finger. It felt like wind had grazed his cheek when Jaune brought his palm to feel it. Looking at the offending finger, Jaune realized what she had done.
It was a smudge of chocolate she had wiped off, from his Schnee Frozen Banana - chocolate covered of course to protect that white gooeyness from getting everywhere.
"Oh thanks," said Jaune with a smile. That was nice of her.
Then the girl looked at her fingertip and licked the chocolate smudge.
Well, that was… something, Jaune thought. He wasn't sure what to make of it but it was getting late and he had to catch the last bus to Beacon.
"See you around," waved Jaune as he left the mute girl alone in the confectionary who, for the first time today, was not smiling with a pair of pale grey eyes.
When Jaune awoke the next morning, nothing felt out of place. Nothing at all. He washed himself and brushed his teeth and went to breakfast to meet the rest of the gang.
For once, Yang was reading the newspaper. The comics section at least.
Scattered about were the rest of the categories: politics (the king has made a squirrel his prime minister), economics (is the ammo too expensive?), local crime (several local ruffians found strung out by their entrails across Beacon Bridge), and of course sports (everything was currently off season but the tournament was coming up).
"Well, I'm done eating. I think I'm going to go the library and read comi-… I mean-study," said Jaune after he finished. Yang stopped him from leaving to dispose his tray.
"Hey wait up, let me join you!" Yang asked.
And so, the blonde pair made their way to the library. Jaune found his necessary 'studying' materials and took a comfortable seat at a lounge chair while Yang was still pursuing something to catch her interest.
With the moment alone, Jaune was about to begin reading when a familiar face appeared.
"Oh hey, it's you… never quite got your name, mute girl," greeted Jaune. Before him was the girl in the white coat with mixed hair and umbrella. A smile plastered over her face. "What brings you to Beacon? Are you a student here?"
No response, as usual.
"Ah… well, I'm here with a friend. Want to meet her? Oh, she's coming over right now."
The girl looked on curiously before looking at Yang. Her wide smile turned upside-down.
"Hey Jaune," said Yang as she approached. "What's with the big smile?"
"Yang, this is a girl I met yesterday. Girl this… huh?"
The girl was gone.
"Jaune, there's no one here," Yang stated. "Are you… sure you saw a girl? Because I've heard that when you get rejected by Weiss so many times you start to hallucinate and see mirages."
"That's just an urban legend," Jaune joked back. But he was so sure the girl was right there… how could it be a mirage?
Later that night, a bookcase fell on Yang. Followed by a piano, then an eighteen-wheeler truck. The police deemed her death a freak accident.
Yang was dead.
Ruby cried, Weiss cried, Blake cried. Team RWBY was now Team RWB.
Jaune talked Weiss and Ruby, who in their moment of weakness needed someone to comfort them. It was a strange and unbelievable process but Weiss and Ruby both confessed their love to Jaune the day of Yang's wake.
And now, they were both dead. Weiss locked in a freezer and Ruby drowned in a vat of boiling chocolate.
Blake was the only one left. She ate a peanut. Blake is allergic to peanuts. Blake died as well.
"So many people… died this week," Pyrrha muttered as beside Jaune on his bed. Nora and Ren had decided to return home to deal with the loss of so many friends leaving the captain and the team goddess of victory alone in the JNPR dorm.
"Yeah…" Jaune sighed. They were all ruled as accidents, but too strange that an entire team was killed in a single week. "It's got to be a conspiracy… something's up…"
"And we'll find the truth behind it," Pyrrha agreed. "Tomorrow… Blake's wake was this morning… we should rest and do it tomorrow."
"Yeah," said Jaune as he turned into bed. Pyrrha did not leave from her place. "Pyrrha? Aren't you going to your bed?"
"Jaune… tonight… can I sleep with you?"
"I-I…"
Pyrrha was wearing a loosened uniform shirt, unbuttoned just enough but not too much. She leaned forward, in a crawl like a cat that left a generous view from Jaune's angle.
"Please?"
"S-sure…"
And so, Jaune and Pyrrha laid underneath the covers, staring at the ceiling. The stars lit the windows. There was no deep breathing; Jaune and Pyrrha knew each other was awake.
"Jaune, do you wonder if tomorrow will be the day we die?"
"All the time," Jaune answered.
"Don't you agree… we need to do things before we regret never having done them?"
"P-Pyrrha?"
The Goddess of Victory said no more as she embraced her prize. That night they nuzzled and cuddled the night away.
When Jaune finally went to sleep, he dream of that quiet girl again. She came in a flash of light, like mirrors focusing on a single point in space. Circling the bedside like a prowling tiger, with the same fierce eyes, a twisted smile, she pulled a blade from her umbrella sheath. The blade was raised high in the pale moonlight.
Jaune thought nothing of it. Dreams end with the morning sun, and do not come back to haunt you. Holding the warm body tighter, wishing the love in his arms would not leave him. The girl was a dream, he assured himself. It must have been a dream.
But the headless Pyrrha Nikos in his arms was not a dream.
Mute Date Fin
Author's Notes: Neo, Coco, and Weiss is my Holy Trinity of RWBY Best Girls. There's something about mute girls, girls with big guns, and ojou-samas...
