"This is how we roll out here
We're packin' heat cause it's cold out here
Hold your own, don't show no fear
Or you're gonna lose your soul out here"
-Hollywood Undead, How We Roll
Chapter 001
The Thieves
I wandered through the crowded streets of downtown Vale, the sun beat down on me causing me to have to look down, Damn my light sensitive eyes. My baggy black hoodie pulled was up to hide my face and loose cargo pants to make trying to size me up nearly impossible. I bumped into person after person looking at their pockets, a bulge of a cellphone or a wallet was enough to attract my eyes but after six months of doing this whole thing I had began to take a bit more...selective approach to my targets. Light reflected off the glass of a nearby storefront causing a girl in her early twenties to shield their face after slipping their phone into their pocket.
I smirked at my chance and quickened my pace bumping into the passerby.
"Sorry." I exclaimed, trying to sound as clueless and innocent as possible.
"It's cool." The girl said as she waved at me and turned into a coffee shop, unaware that I had just pocketed her new phone.
"Shit." I swore under my breath as I quickened my pace away from the site of my most recent theft.
Coffee shops were the bane of my existence as a thief. Why you ask? It's simple. What do you do when you wait in line to order your double caramel frappuccino or whatever? Check your phone. What do you do after you order said drink and are waiting for it to be made? Check your phone. What do you do while you drink the drink? You check your phone. And it was this fact that had almost gotten me caught a couple times seeing as how i'd stolen their phones.
Quickly turning a corner into an alleyway, I began to run. I ran towards the other end of the alleyway before kicking off a wall and in a motion so fluid it only looked like one, landed on top of a dumpster before jumping and grabbing onto the ladder bars of a fire escape. Pulling myself up, I quickly made my way up the stairs, occasionally passing a planter where someone was growing flowers. As I reached the roof I didn't stop and began running in the direction of home.
My Converse sneakers kicked up gravel as I jumped between roofs. People always stared at freerunners like they were crazy but they just didn't get it. I'd become addicted to the feeling, the feeling of freefall was one that i'd ever found an equal to. It was the premium rush as Sun had described it and I couldn't agree more as I flung myself building to building, slowly making my way from Downtown to the a district of Vale known as The Mansions.
The Mansions weren't actually mansions which is something that had always lead to some fun nights of hustling tourists who wandered into the district looking for exquisite and impressive houses but only found apartment buildings.
I skidded to a stop on top of one of the near identical buildings in The Mansions and braced myself against the stereotypical entrance to the roof from the apartments below. I gasped due to the fact my lungs are trying to fucking kill me! I sighed as I pounded my chest and began the last of the trek home. As I hopped from roof to roof my head swiveled around as I looked for the flagpole. The building I lived in was the only one with a flagpole in The Mansions and I spotted it mid-jump and saw it was, as usual, flying no flag.
Rerouting myself, I was soon on top of my building's roof and hopped down onto the fire escape. I made my way down the wrought iron fire escape in a series of small jumps and soon got to the window of my apartment. Pressing my hands against the glass, I slid the window up before grabbing the short stick we kept just below the window inside the apartment and propped the window open. Grabbing the floor of the fire escape above me, I swung into the apartment and landed in the living room in one fluid motion.
"You're getting better at that."
I looked up from my position to see Sage in the kitchen on the other side of the main room of the apartment. Sage Ayana was a massive muscular guy, with tattoos that were sometimes difficult to see due to his dark skin. He had piercing golden eyes, similar to an owl, and green hair that stood straight up.
Sage was one of my many roommates and partners in crime and literally one of my partners in crime seeing as how he and the others were the reason I wasn't living in the gutter. Sage was also the secondary cook in the apartment and he was currently preparing a large pot of his spaghetti and I assumed garlic bread too due to the amazing smell wafting from the kitchen.
"What's your haul?" Sage asked as he stirred the pot.
I walked up to the breakfast bar and dumped out my hoodie and jeans pockets, "Three phones and seven wallets."
Sage examined the phones and set them in a net pile before looking at the wallets, "You know the drill Jaune."
I nodded as I pulled all the cash out of all the wallets and began counting it. Sage watched out of the corner of his eye and smiled as I set down the wad of cash, "Two sixty-seven."
Sage smiled as he looked at the pile, "We'll make a thief out of you yet Arc. Maybe it's time to teach you how to lift watches."
"You can't lift a watch."
"Tell Ren that on a good day, all the stock brokers in the business district will be watchless by lunch."
I turned to the apartments open door to see Neptune Vasilias was standing in the doorway, smiling as he looked at Jaune's take for the day, "Nicccce man. You're getting better."
Neptune was a tanned boy with ocean blue eyes and wore his cyan blue hair in an undercut. He wore typical pickpocket clothes as we called em, which were baggy black cargo pants, plenty of pockets for newly acquired items, and a baggy black hoodie.
Sage nodded as he turned back to his spaghetti and Neptune walked into the apartment, shutting the door behind him. Neptune stood next to me and dumped out his hall, seven phones and ten wallets, a slow day for Neptune.
Neptune walked into the living room near the window i'd entered in and sat on their large leather L shaped couch, "God i'm wiped."
"What happened?" I asked as I lean against the breakfast bar.
"I slipped up and some chick caught me with my hand in her pocket so I had to book it up Starling and ditch her on Coast." Neptune explained as he turned on their flat screen that Scarlet had won in a poker game that he had cheated in.
"Lost her in the construction zone?" I asked already knowing the tactic he'd used seeing as how i'd learned it from him.
Neptune nodded as Sage took the garlic bread out of the oven causing Neptune to inhale the smell of butter and garlic, "Isn't it a bit early for dinner?"
"Early is good man, helps keep the weight down." Sage said as he set the pan of garlic bread down and tossed the towel he used as a oven mitt to the side.
"Yes because you know the constant free running, parkour and, just being the kings of thieves in general doesn't help with that."
Jaune watch Sun step through the living room window with a massive smirk on his face and Neptune glared at the muscled, spiky haired, blonde, monkey faunus as Sun continued, "I mean come on, we're awesome. Like, really fuckin awesome."
Sage chuckled as Sun revealed his haul to everyone by dumping it onto the breakfast bar, twelve phones and eighteen wallets. Sun was in the zone today.
"Pretty sure you paid your part of the rent rent today man." Sage commented as he examined the phones.
"I know. I was in the freaking zone today," Sun gloated as he flung himself onto the couch, "Anyone know where Ren and Scarlet are?"
"I think Scarlet was hustling pool down at Hunter's Den." Sage said as he and I collapsed next to our friends on the couch and soon were all drawn into the exploits of Oliver Queen as The Arrow and Barry Allen as The Flash.
"Who the fuck thought Captain Boomerang was a good code name?" Neptune asked jokingly.
"Cisco apparently." I said.
"Ten bucks says Captain Boomerang almost kills Lyla." Sage said a little while later into the episode.
"I'll take some of that action." Sun and Neptune said in unison.
A few moments later Sage was twenty lien richer.
/~/
Everyone's head snapped towards the door to see Scarlet and Ren and Sun paused the exploits of Oliver Queen as the two arrivals collapsed onto the couch with us.
"That. Sucked." Scarlet said as Ren only nodded in acknowledge.
"What happened?" I asked as Ren undid his black ponytail, letting his long black hair fan out.
"You don't want to know." Ren said simply as he rubbed the heels of his hands against his abnormally pink eyes.
Scarlet nodded, causing his strange red undercut to move letting me see his other green eye for once. I shrugged at my friends' vagueness and turned back to Arrow.
"So how was everyone's take?" Sun asked, seeing as how he was the closest thing to a leader in our little crew of thieves.
"Three and seven." I said casually.
"Seven and ten." Neptune said as he responded to a text.
"I hustled a hundred and twenty down at the Hunter's Den." Scarlet said halfheartedly.
"I managed to grab two Rolexs." Ren said in a tone matching his red haired roommate.
"You two were off your game today." Sage commented boredly.
"How much did you make Sage?" Scarlet asked cockily.
"I didn't go out today. I was here waiting for the courier." Sage said before Sun nodded in acknowledgement.
"What courier?" I asked narrowing my eyes at my friends.
Sun rubbed the back of his neck, "It's nothing man. Just some pictures of a place I was thinkin we might hit."
"You don't think it's too soon," Neptune asked, "I mean, our last job was last month."
"I said 'thinkin' man." Sun said calmly.
"Well you know i'm down." Sage said with a smirk.
"I'm in too but I just don't want to get too greedy you know." Neptune said and I couldn't help but nod in agreement.
"There's having greed and being greedy and we need to stick with the first if we want to stay alive." Ren said calmly as he stood and walked into the kitchen and began plating himself dinner.
Greed gets you paid. Greedy gets you in handcuffs. This is something i've learned the hard way, almost being caught by a cop on patrol two months into living with the guys. The November chill managed to seep into the apartment causing all of us to change out of our pickpocketing clothes and into sweatpants and sweatshirts.
We ended up eating all of Sage's spaghetti and garlic bread before chilling for the rest of the night which was a pretty common thing for us seeing as how none of us had day jobs and all went to school together. Sun ran probably one of the greatest cons ever when it came to this whole thing.
Sun had fake IDs made for all of us and had us on the landlords books as college students who all had jobs but had us all on the high school's books as the adopted sons of a wealthy doctor who was currently in Mistral. It's one of the best cons i'd ever seen...granted i'd only known about all of this for six months so my word doesn't mean much.
Everyone slowly drifted from the couch to their bunk and before too long it was only me sitting on the couch, lost in a daze. I shook my head quickly, trying to regain my concentration, and stood up.
I could head to me and Ren's room and head to bed, I probably should but I was drawn outside for some reason and before I knew it I was standing on the roof. The lights of downtown shined bright and easily touched my face as I stared out at them. I blinked my cobalt eyes and couldn't help but think of my friends.
Sun Wukong was the best pickpocket and lockpick of the crew. Scarlet was our hustler, he could always make money in a game of pool or a game of poker or blackjack. Sage was the best fighter and i've been tutored by him for a couple months, mostly because of a certain incident when I lost a day's worth of work all because a guy had a thirty-eight. Neptune was our tech guy, he's magic with a computer and also he had a knack for finding things on the street that were useful to us. Ren was our best when it came to movement. When Sun first said it I was confused but after he explained it it made sense. Ren was the best at getting from one place to another, whether or not it involved free running Ren was best at losing tails, getting lost in crowds and being a ninja in general and I found it awesome.
And then there was me. I wasn't anything special at any of this. Granted i've only been doing this for six months but still...I thought I would have found something I was good at but right now all I could really do was pick pockets and freerun half decently. I sat down on the ledge and let my legs hang freely. It is Saturday so tomorrow I would be heading back to school with the crew. Dammit.
/~/
My eyes snapped open at the sound of a electronic buzzing. The alarm clock. I groaned as I rolled over and looked down from my top bunk down to my bunk mate, "Turn that damn thing off Ren."
Ren's hand shot out and hit the electronic device till the buzzing stopped and groaned. "Pancakes?"
"Please." I said as I hopped down and saw myself in the mirror between mine and Ren's desks, my golden blonde hair was extremely unkempt and sticking out in all directions and my normally vibrant cobalt eyes were a dull blue, like the sea before a storm.
Ren nodded as he slipped out from his bunk and yawned as he padded out of our room and I soon followed behind him. Before too long I was in the shower, washing my hair, my body, shaving. Basic morning things. But it was soon cut short as the door shook from someone banging on it.
"Hurry the fuck up. There are six of us remember?"
Sage. I quickly finished and soon exited the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist as I made my way to my bedroom. I let the towel fall after the door had closed behind me and walked towards the closest. Me and Ren had spilt the closest evenly and Ren's side was a lot more...stylish, to say the least. I wore simple enough clothes but not simple enough that I stood out and that had helped me more than it had hurt me for sure.
After slipping on boxers I pulled out a pair of dark blue jeans with pre-torn rips in the knees, that I found at Ross for a steal, a white V-neck and a black hoodie. After getting dressed I found the rest of my roommates eating in the kitchen, all different levels of dressed for school. Sun was wearing his faded jeans and black and yellow Converse...but no shirt. Neptune was the only other one fully dressed, wearing a thin red leather jacket with a white T-shirt underneath, black jeans and high tops. Scarlet was wearing a red button up shirt that had the top two buttons undone and no pants. Sage was wearing black jeans and a white tank top as an undershirt. And Ren was wearing his black and green pajamas except he had on a pink apron that said in bold letters, "PLEASE DO NOTHING TO THE COOK."
Ren set two pancakes in front of me and tossed a fork straight into the air and my hand shot out and caught the spinning utensil as everyone finished their breakfast and began finishing getting dressed. As I ate I remembered, once again, why Ren was head chef of the apartment.
Sage soon came out of his and Scarlet's room now wearing a white hoodie and a pair of Doc Martin's. Sun came out wearing white shirt with a design of a black monkey wearing red headphones and eating a yellow banana. Scarlet came out wearing tan jeans and brown boots. And Ren came out wearing a green garrison style jacket with a white undershirt, tan jeans, green and white sneakers and a stylish white scarf.
"Okay. Now that we all look fly as fuck, let's go team." Sun said as he motioned towards the door.
We all walked towards the door but stopped to grab our bags from the closet, slinging my brown messenger bag over my shoulder, I stepped out into the hallway of our apartment building and I was soon followed by my friends. Time for hell.
/~/
We all stepped of the city bus and stared at Signal High. This was Sun's one rule that I didn't get. He wanted all of us to at least finish high school. Fucking weird if you ask me but I wasn't going to go against Sun, not after all he's done for me. So I buckle down like a good solider and try my hardest in this Oum forsaken place but even I had my limits.
I walked into the high school with my crew and I felt eyes on us. Everyone here believed we were well off and also found it strange that we never openly socialize with anyone. No one even knew where we lived apparently. I've ease dropped enough to learn all of this and I honestly didn't care, Sun, Scarlet, Sage, Neptune and Ren had saved me when I was at my worst and I wouldn't be alive if it wasn't for them...so let them whisper. I split off from my friends and began towards my first class.
Calculus...dammit all.
I trudged through the hallways tiredly. Watching people pass me by, talking about the winter dance or something else alone those lines. I hadn't been to a dance since I was a freshman and now I was a junior. Wow. Maybe I should go.
Nah. I walked into calculus and walked past the already seated students taking my seat in back to the very right. It looked like your standard math classroom, a projector, the teacher's desk, lots of desks, no posters. Basic but functional. Not bad at all.
The sound of a chair being dragged next to me broke my thoughts and I turned my head to see the closest thing I had to a friend outside of the crew, Ruby Rose.
Ruby Rose was only fifteen, two years younger than me, but had been moved ahead two years and was now in all junior classes due to her academic achievements as Ozpin, our principal, described. I may or may not have ease dropped on a couple of his conversations and Rub had come up. She was the pride of Signal.
"Hey Jaune." She greeted.
Here we go.
"Hey Ruby." I said back, letting the usual edge in my voice disappear.
"Did you do the homework?" She asked as she dug her binder for the class out of her backpack.
"Yep." I said, trying to sound upbeat.
"What did you get for sixteen?" The petite redhead beside me asked.
I dug into my messenger bag and pulled out my binder before flipping to the homework assigned over the weekend and scanning for the question, "Forty-two forty-two."
"I got that too." Ruby said with a smile.
I was about to reply when I was interrupted by the sound of the the door shutting and heels clicking across the classroom floor.
Ding dong the witch is here.
Mrs. Goodwitch cleared her throat and everyone's, including mine, snapped towards the platinum blonde woman. She's an insanely scary and this is coming from a guy who's been shot at by police.
"Everyone get out your homework." the teacher commanded and everyone, unsurprisingly, instantly reached for their bags.
/~/
I mentally killed myself every five minutes before class had ended and by the end I had stabbed myself in the throat three times with a pen, four times with the butterfly knife in my bag, bashed my head open twice and jumped off the top of the building three times. I hate math. A lot. More than anything.
The bell rang and I nearly squealed from happiness. Not a good thing. I wanted people to think I was relaxed and a bit of a dork mostly because I didn't want them to figure out that most of my, scratch that, all of my marketable skills were illegal.
So I feigned a sigh as I stood and stowed my binder into my bag and tossed it over my shoulder as I heard students around me doing the same. The rest of the day is smooth sailing compared to this.
"Hey Jaune I was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with me today." Ruby asked as she packed up.
I smiled, whether or not it was genuine was a mystery to me, "Sorry Ruby but I gotta spend what little lunch we have checking on my brothers. They'd be lost without me."
Ruby nodded and smiled, "I get it, I have a sister to watch out for too. Some other time?"
"Maybe. I'll talk to you later Ruby." I said as I left the infernal calculus room and began walking to my favorite class, History. History had always clicked with me, I found it easier to remember names and dates than formulas and equations. Plus Oobleck was pretty decent when he wasn't running around the class faster than a jet. One downside to history was that it was my one class with the biggest asshole in this whole school, Cardin Winchester. Now granted his little quips and remarks didn't hurt me in the slightest, he and his little group were just annoying and a group of thugs. Now granted I stole things and I personally saw myself on a higher moral level than those idiots, constantly terrorizing faunus and people who were too scared to stand up for themselves. I'd been like that once, a long time ago granted, but it'd been in their position.
I trudged though the hallways and soon found myself in history and took my seat near the middle to the left. I smiled as Ren walked in and took his seat next to me. The stoic boy flashed a rare smile at me causing me to look at him confused, "What happened to you?"
"Nothing." The boy said as he smothered his smile.
"It was something Ren and i'll find out."
"Sure." the quiet boy said skeptically as we both took out our notebooks for the class.
Students continued to file into the classroom and soon the bell rang and Dr. Oobleck paced into the room quickly.
"Well students today we shall start our new unit! Today we shall begin to learn about the Human-Faunus War and how it nearly tore our kingdom apart. It was a simply dreadful and bloody period in time but we must learn about it's impact. For if you don't know the past you are destined to repeat it." The green haired teacher said quickly before he rocketed through attendance at break neck speed.
"Please open your textbooks to page one sixty-two." Oobleck said and students reached under their chairs and began pulling our books and flipping to the proper page.
"Please read until the heading, 'The Fall of Fort Temple' then stop and read horoughly because we will discuss what you read." Oobleck said as he sat down at his desk and pulled a thermos out of one of the drawers and poured himself a cup of coffee.
I began reading about the first battle of the Human-Faunus War, which took place in a field, now known as the Field of Revolution, in Eastern Vale when a racist officer stopped a faunus caravan and wrongly accused a faunus of obstructing justice by transporting a criminal that didn't actually exist. The officer was about to execute the faunus when a wolf faunus by the name of Epan Ástasi ran the office through with his own sword. There were only five soldiers so it was no surprise when they were quickly overwhelmed by the caravan. Ástasi soon became the figurehead for the Faunus in the war.
I looked up having read what was required and saw a few other heads up as well, their eyes wandered around the room boredly as time ticked on I began to feel something hitting the back of my neck and I didn't even have to check knowing Cardin was shooting bits of paper at my neck using a rubber band.
Annoying prick.
I stayed quiet as I felt the sting of the paper and had to resist my instinct to punch him in the throat. The stinging didn't stop as Oobleck called the classes attention and began questioning students as he paced around the room.
"What was the name of the officer who ordered the execution? Ms. Schnee." Oobleck asked as he pointed to Weiss Schnee, captain of the soccer team.
"Reginald Blackwell." The heiress of Schnee International answered calmly. With her white hair, ice blue eyes, small frame and pale complexion i'd always thought she looked fragile, like doll meant only for display.
"Who was the faunus who killed Blackwell? Miss Belladonna." Oobleck asked as he nodded to Blake Belladonna.
"Epan Ástasi." The ebony haired girl answered, not lifting her amber eyes away from her book which I could tell was Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
"What killed Blackwell?" Oobleck asked as he motioned to Ren.
"His own sword."
"Mr. Arc. What's the name of the faunus nearly executed?"
Oh please I knew this off the top of my head, "Áskopi Thýma."
"Very good," Oobleck said before narrowing his eyes towards the back of the room, "Mr. Winchester. Why did the officers lose in a battle where they were much more well trained than their enemy."
"Because they're rabid animals." Cardin said smugly and I was forced to swallow my anger.
I saw others in the class bristle with hate as Oobleck scowled at the boy, "See me after class Mr. Winchester. Now does anyone have an actual reason that isn't idiotic?"
Cardin sputtered before Yang Xiao Long, Ruby's half sister, answered, "The officers were extremely outnumbered and their commander was first to die and they fell apart without a head officer."
"Very good miss Xiao Long, now class please read from 'The Fall of Fort Temple' to the end of the chapter." Oobleck said as he sat back down at his desk and began flipping through a book.
/~/
I slumped in my chair at the lunch table that had become the crew's official table as Sun sat next to me and let his tray fall with him, "Today fuckin sucks."
"It's okay." I said as I chewed on my prosciutto sandwich that I had ran off campus to get.
The seat next to me scratched against the linoleum as Neptune sat down with a wrapped sandwich and a soda that he'd gotten from the ala cart before pulling out a small slip of paper and tossing it into the trash.
"Why you gotta do that man," Sun asked, "Girls just want a chance man."
Neptune rolled his eyes as he dug out another number and tossed it, "Don't have time for a relationship."
"Then don't take their numbers, you're just gonna leave em broken hearted." I said as Neptune nodded as he unwrapped his sandwich.
"Where are Sage, Scarlet and Ren?" Sun asked as he began eating his slice of "pizza" which probably wasn't even real seeing as how it came from the school cafeteria.
Two seats scrapped as Sage and Ren soon joined us, both with a wrapped sandwich and a soda. I took another bite of my prosciutto sandwich as Sage and Ren began tearing into their sandwiches as we all shared small talk.
"What's up with you guys? Am I the only one who got pizza?" Sun asked as he took a sip from a water bottle.
"I don't even think that's pizza." Sage said in mild disgust as he glanced at the abomination.
"I have to agree with Sage," Ren commented, "That doesn't look edible."
"You're all crazy." Sun said as he took another bite. Scarlet joined us a moment later, lunch less, and sat down before looking like he was lost in thought.
"Okay guys. This is kind of a weird question but I need you to answer it as best you can." Scarlet said with un-Scarlet like conviction.
"What's up Scar?" Neptune asked staring at his friend.
"Do babies float?"
There was a shocked silence before anyone even considered reacting.
"Jesus Christ" I muttered as Neptune began laughing so hard he fell out of his chair and Sage soon joined him, rolling on the floor almost in tears from laughter.
"You're so fucking stupid." Sun said in a shell shocked tone.
"I'm never going to let you have children." Ren said calmly, with finality in his voice.
"But-"
"Ever!"
I laughed for a moment before ending up in a coughing fit and hacking out my response mid cough, "Yes babies"-coughing-"float."
"Why the fuck would you even ask that?" Sage asked as he climbed back into his chair mid-laugh.
"Well, I know water birth is a thing so I was wondering if babies naturally floated or if the doctor had to, like, catch them after the came out." Scarlet explained as Neptune climbed back into his chair.
"Of course babies float dumbass." Sun said as he took another sip of water.
I chuckled as I finished my sandwich and looked over to Sun as he cleared his throat, "So, has everyone made rent for the month?"
"Making rent" was a term used by us that didn't just cover rent but also our sixth of the cable bill, (which was really just Wi-Fi) our sixth of the food budget, and our portion of the rent. Anything extra we made was ours to keep and spend as we wanted. I nodded, "Yesterday."
Ren shook his head slightly, "After yesterday's...mishap, I didn't have time to so i'll go out tomorrow."
Sage also shook his head, "I planned on heading out today."
"I hit my quota." Neptune said as he looked down at his cellphone.
Scarlet nodded, "I finished yesterday."
Sun nodded as he examined his crew, "Nice nice. Well I finished yesterday so i'm in the clear."
"We should invest in a car." I suggested casually.
Sun nodded, "It would make getting groceries and stuff easier. But…"
"Convertible." Scarlet said out of nowhere.
"Fuck no! What if it rains? Sedan." Neptune said in retaliation.
"You realized there are six of us right!? We should get a van." Sage shouted.
My head started spinning as everyone gave their two cents on the subject and I slowly began to realize why we had to take the city bus to school. I smirked as I leaned back in my chair.
We're gonna be here awhile.
/~/
I wearily trudged into my room, letting my backpack fall to the floor, I climbed up onto my bed and laid face down. I was tired, mentally and physically and Ren walking into our room after me was the only thing keeping me from slipping into unconsciousness. My hand hung off my bed and Ren slapped it.
"Ow." I said into my mattress.
"Jaune, I understand that you're doing this whole I'm-angry-at-almost-everything...thing but you need to get out more, meet people, do things besides steal." Ren said calmly.
"Why would I when I have you guys? You're the only people I don't have to lie to or fake anything. You guys have-...you've been there for me when no one else was." I said as I sat up, my head rubbing against the ceiling slightly.
"I understand Jaune, and anyone else who has gone through what you have would be acting the exact same way but you need to get out there," Ren said as he began changing, "What about Ruby? She's nice and from what I hear she's plenty smart."
I groaned as I fell to my side, "Ruby's okay but I just don't…"
"What? Trust her," Ren asked exasperatedly, "Am I the only one who finds the fact that the only people you seem to trust are thieves ironic?"
"There's honor among thieves Ren...but out there, nothing." I said as I rolled over.
"Jaune...get some rest." Ren said as he padded out of the room and shut the door behind him.
I closed my eyes and felt sleep ambush me as my mind slipped into darkness...and my memories.
/~/
I huddled in the dark alleyway Downtown. Rain fell, soaking my hoodie. I had just ran from my most recent foster home, a drunk and a drug addict, parents of the year. I pulled my knees up to my chest and breathed in ragged breaths. My chest hurt from where a baseball bat that had been wielded by the drunken foster father. I turned my head to the side and spit out a mouthful of salty blood. I leaned my head back against the brick building behind me and took a deep breath.
Steel yourself Jaune. Focus on this moment and this moment alone.
I focused on my current situation. I was broke, homeless, in unimaginable amounts of pain and to top it all off, it was raining. Great.
I felt a single tear fall down my face as I thought of my mother, the selfish bitch who abandoned me. My father...the bastard who helped her. I felt my heart ache at the thoughts of them, my parents, the ones who were supposed to shield me from harm, threw me right into the fray of the city when I was twelve. I soon made my way into the foster system and then out, then in again, then out again, then in again. Six foster homes in total.
I heard puddles splashing down the alleyway and the sound of heavy breathing as I saw someone in a dark hoodie and pants approximately my size running down the alleyway, and I saw two flashlights bobbing in the shadows. The figure in dark clothes tore off their hoodie revealing blonde spiky hair and golden eyes as he crashed into a seating position next to me, hiding the hoodie behind him, showing off his white long sleeve shirt.
"Stay quiet." He commanded as the lights grew closer and I realized who the lights belonged to.
Cops.
I watched as the two uniformed cops ran passed me and the other blonde boy. Not thinking that the boy may have sat next to me in a successful attempt to blend in. The blonde next to me smiled after a moment before jumping into the air laughing, "Jesus that was close! You should have seen it! Those cops were chasing me for like an hour, you saved my ass man thanks."
"It's okay." I croaked out and the blonde's smile disappeared as he examined me.
"You okay man? You look a little worse for the wear." The blonde commented as he cocked his head at me.
"More than a little."
The blonde smiled down at me and offered his hand, "I'm Sun, Sun Wukong"
I hesitantly took Sun's hand and groaned as he helped me up, "Arc. Jaune Arc."
"Well Jaune what do you say to me giving you a warm bed, hot meal...for a small price that is." Sun said with a small smile.
"What's that?" I asked as I suppressed my anger, knowing I couldn't pay any amount of money.
"Tell me your story."
I was shocked. Surprised. And for the first time in four years. Hopeful. "I can do that."
AN: Hello all and welcome to Arc Among Thieves it's honestly a story idea I got out of nowhere and had the urge to write so i'm kinda half cocked as in ships and plot but I will figure both those out but if you have any suggestions please leave a review especially with ships. Please? Pretty please? Nicccce. So please follow, favorite to keep updated with the story and leave a review telling me what you think I love hearing from you guys. Stay cool everyone and live out loud.
P.S. Cover art is from clucaris on Tumblr.