A short one-shot for you guys. I am not the owner of RWBY... or Roosterteeth... Or anything Roosterteeth related. *Wink Wink*
A quiet night, all is calm. And then… A raised voice. More raised voices. Then shouting. After, the sound of fists hitting flesh, chairs and tables being knocked over or breaking. Glass shattered. And finally, all was still again.
A tall, and admittedly scraggly, blond staggered out of the once loud bar. A rose follows him in a huff towards the other side of the street where their friends are staying. Eventually the blond notices her and tries to quicken his pace, swaying all the while and falling over before he can reach the young girl.
"Jaune, you know you didn't have to beat them all up, right?" the red and black clad girl asks as she helps the fallen knight to his feet. But she already knows the answer to her own question.
And just like every other time he replies with a sigh, "Ruby. They didn't have the information we needed, so we had a little disagreement."
"But you didn't need to beat them to a pulp! You were only supposed to defend yourself!" Ruby argued.
"Well, I like to think I did a great job of that. Don't you?" Jaune replies, dripping with sarcasm as he turns to walk away, but the little rose won't give up so easily.
Saddened, she pulls him into a tight hug, which in his state of pain and drunkenness can't break out of. "Jaune..." She starts but halts before finding the courage, "She's gone, Jaune… We can't bring her back… It's been months. I need my best friend back." She pulls her gaze up to meet the blonde's eyes, tears welling up in hers.
Finding a new strength within him, or was it anger? It didn't matter, because the knight shoves Ruby off of him and into the ground before he continues staggering away, to the outskirts of Mistral. He turns back to address the red clad girl one final time.
"I lost mine eight months ago… on the top of that tower."
"Jaune… I…"
"And YOU! With all you speed couldn't get there in time!"
Tears are now freely flowing from both Jaune's and Ruby's faces, "But! We were going to be the heroes in the stories Jaune! We were going to be the greatest hunters ever together!"
He laughs," Oh really Ruby? No… We aren't… You do whatever you want… I'm no hero… I'm no hunter," he continues on his way," And you should have figured that out by now."
A once legendary sword was dropped in the dirt and left to rust, until, slowly, a wilted rose picks it up and holds it close to her chest. She looks back up with tears still in her eyes towards where her friend was walking, but he is already gone.
"Everyone, has their price… I learned that a long time ago. And you're no exception."
This is what I had originally planned for my other fic, Arc of the Hunters, but I finally thought that the story wouldn't get very far with a Jaune's f*ed up mind. But it has been sitting in my computer waiting for so much as a little bit of love and so I finally gave it the polish it deserves.