Bold = Thinking
Italics = Flashback/Dream
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN I HAVE TO MEET PEOPLE?!"
To anyone else, Jaune's outburst would have made them run the other direction. Ozpin wasn't anyone else however. He was used to his outbursts about meeting people at this point.
"Jaune, these people are going to be your classmates for the next four years. You get along with the students here well enough, especially team CFVY, so I don't see why you can't meet new people."
"You know damn well why I can't meet people!" Here it goes. "It took three months to trust Weiss. Three months! And you had to literally force me to talk to CFVY for two more months before I trusted them, so stop making it sound easy!"
"And the musicians? You trust them enough. Why not others?"
"Because I'm not giving them a job, Oz! You tend to trust someone when they give you a whole career!"
"Jaune." Ozpin put his coffee mug down at this point, which made Jaune immediately stop talking. Ozpin putting down the mug was his version of a judge smacking a gavel. "I completely understand why you don't give your trust out easily. If I was you, I would have just as many trust issues. But the fact is you're going to have to meet them either sooner or later, so why not get a head start? You're not guaranteed to have Weiss on your team after all."
That alone was enough to make Jaune pale. The thought had obviously crossed his mind a lot in the past year, but that didn't mean that the prospect was any less scary. Ozpin had sworn that he wasn't going to rig the initiation any different then he did last year, so partners were pretty much random, which gave him a very, very, VERY small chance at getting Weiss. Ozpin was right, yet again.
Jaune let out a long, and admittedly overly dramatic, sigh before wordlessly turning around and entering the elevator. He'd learned very early on: Ozpin always got the last word in these kinds of conversations, so talking past a certain point is like talking to air. Didn't mean he couldn't take out his anger by punching the wall in the elevator, though.
Why does he have to be right this time of all times?
After passing by Ms. Goodwitch in the secretary's office, giving her a simple nod which she returned, he started going through a mental checklist of everything he was wearing, making sure it was up to his code.
Hoodie and black track pants combo? Check.
Arm guards? Check.
White beanie? Check.
Crocea Mors? His thoughts stopped for a second, just like they always did when he looked at the sword. Check.
Rollerskates?... as if those are going anywhere.
If there was one thing Jaune was proud of, it was his skating. He had been skating literally nonstop for the past five years, and had managed to completely perfect it. Of course, the situation was thrown on him against his will, but hey, you work with what you're given. And with his skating, combined with the ridiculous training Ozpin and Weiss put him through, came his unmatched parkour skills. He could safely say that he could go from one end of Vale to the other without ever touching the ground, only rooftops.
So it was a surprise to everyone that knew him that the usually confident Jaune, instead of skating around like he'd been born to do it, was simply walking down the hallway, shrinking in on himself with one hand holding his other arm. They all realized the situation quickly enough, though, and decided to not comment. Even Team CFVY, who all gave him encouraging gestures, knew not to get involved.
After what felt like a decade of self reflection and making sure the arm guards were positioned properly, he finally made it to the airdocks.
He did not expect an explosion of all things to happen so soon.
About 500 feet away, Jaune watched as a girl in red and black was getting scolded by a girl in all white. It didn't take long for Jaune to recognize both of them.
Ruby and Weiss meeting immediately. What are the odds?
While slowly walking towards them, hoping to catch Ruby before she left, he noticed a girl in all black walking towards them. The small feeling of recognition quickly caused a "vision", as he called it, but Jaune punched himself in the face to stop that from going any further. To anyone who knew him, his PTSD was acting up again and they knew to stay away.
Of course, not everyone knew him, and someone else decided that him punching himself made it okay to punch as well.
Jaune, still caught in his memory and acting on reflex, let the punch's momentum bring him to his hands, performing a bicycle kick into the offender's jawbone in the process. The opponent was launched into the air, before used his hands to flip himself around and slam his feet down on bis chest.
Jaune looked down to see that he was standing over a boy his age, a first year, with burnt orange hair, a lot more armor than should be necessary, and, despite the fact that he'd just gotten taken down completely in two moves, an arrogant smirk on his face.
Already I have someone who wants to hurt me. Yay.
He didn't even listen to what the boy had to say, simply getting off his chest, mumbling a "s-s-sorry" and skating away. Not given the proper amount of time to contemplate the girl in black, he let her leave his mind.
Looking back to the courtyard, he saw that Ruby was the only one still there, and he watched as she collapsed to the ground in obvious sadness. He was close enough to hear her say "welcome to Beacon". He locked his wheels, rolled to cease his momentum, and walked over to one of the only people he knew of his class. While still looking like he wanted to collapse from all the attention, he held his hand to her.
"Having some trouble there, Ruby?"
Ruby looked up, and her eyes widened in recognition. She grabbed his hand to allow him to pull her up, immediately pulled him into a massive hug, and started talking at speeds matched only by her semblance.
"Hi, Jaune! Are you lost too? Have you met anyone else yet? Have you had to deal with that ice girl?"
As much as Jaune wanted to answer the questions, his mind had pretty much frozen when she hugged him. Not because of hugs, no, he liked hugs, the issue was the suddenness of it. Saying Jaune wasn't a fan of sudden things was a huge understatement; if it weren't for Ruby's iron grip, he probably would've judo thrown her out of reflex.
Although he did find it funny that Weiss was "that ice girl" in Ruby's mind.
"Ruby", he breathed out, "no hugs." When he said that, she immediately let go. If Jaune was looking at her, he would've seen her red face.
"S-sorry Jaune. I didn't know you don't like hugs." He looked back up at that.
"No, it's okay, I like hugs, just give me a warning when you want to hug, okay? Not out of the blue like that." And with that, they started walking.
Even though there was nothing wrong (in Jaune's eyes at least), the walk was still awkward. Ruby was not a fan of awkward; after all, how are you supposed to become friends with someone through silence? She knew exactly what to do to diffuse the awkwardness:
"So, I've got this thing."
Crescent Rose deployed and slammed a hole into the ground. Jaune, having known that that was probably going to happen, was able to contain his fear.
"I remember. A scythe combined with a sniper rifle. One of the most dangerous weapons ever created."
"Yep! I may have gone a bit overboard with designing it, but I don't care. I wouldn't have my sweetheart any other way." Ruby, at that point, had started cradling her weapon like a baby, and if Jaune had more confidence in that moment he would've openly expressed how creepy it was. "So, what's your weapon?"
Jaune unsheathed his sword and extended the shield. "nothing special. Just this sword and the sheathe becomes a shield. They're just hand-me-downs though. I didn't make them. My arm guard is what I'm really proud of." He triggered the mechanism on his left arm guard, and it extended into...
"A guitar?!" Yes, the guard he wore on his left arm could transform into an electric guitar.
"Not a weapon in i-its own right, but could be if needed." He was extremely proud of himself when he managed to build it. And he still felt proud every time it mecha-shifted... except for this time, since Ruby was just laughing instead. "What's so funny?"
Ruby flinched a little at the defeated tone, but recovered. "It's just... why pink?" She would've been admiring the craftsmanship, hell she was anyway, but the fact that it was a nice dark shade of pink made the urge to laugh go too high. In his defense, though, the arm guard was the same shade of pink, so she really shouldn't have been surprised.
"It's a long story, but I didn't just pick it. There's a reason."
Again, Ruby could tell she'd struck a nerve, so she mumbled another apology and focused on walking. Then, another idea hit her. "What about your skates?"
He immediately looked down and almost breathed a sigh of belief. "What do you mean?"
"Well, they're made of metal, so I assumed that you built them. Am I wrong?"
"No" Lie "but there's nothing really special about them either. There's only two things that make them different from other skates. There's a mechanism on my kneecaps that can lock or unlock the wheels." He demonstrated by smacking his kneecaps, making the wheels roll as they were walking. Ruby kicked herself for not noticing they weren't moving before. She also noticed that he started spinning in a circle, which led to his next thing: "The wheels are also omnidirectional, so I can go in any direction. I call them Alpha and Omega."
"Whoa, that cool!" It was then that she noticed something wrong. "Hey Jaune, do you know where we're going?"
"Hey Rubes. You make a friend?"
"Yup! Well, not really, since I already knew him but it still counts!"
If Jaune had his choice, he wouldn't be here right now. He'd be in Ozpin's office, or CFVY's dorm, really anywhere but where he is, with Ruby all but forcing him to talk to Yang in the auditorium (in reality, she'd asked politely and he'd been too scared to deny).
Crowds. Crowds. Not a fan of crowds.
It didn't help that he could feel that he was being watched.
"You knew him? How?"
If I'm going to talk, might as well be now. "T-there's not that m-much of a story." He cursed his stutter, but told the story anyway.
"You want to come to my school?"
"More then anything. But I don't get what's so special about me. I don't want any special treatment."
Ozpin only smiled. "Well, you're not the only one coming to Beacon through a... unique method."
Ruby's happiness was replaced by confusion. Why did Ozpin have to be so cryptic? "What do you mean?"
"He m-means me."
How Ruby didn't notice the oddly dressed blonde teenager in the doorway was a mystery, although she didn't feel as bad when Goodwitch jumped in shock as well. "I g-got invited to c-come as well."
"Ruby, this is Jaune." Jaune gave Ruby a small wave. It was obvious to her that he was nervous of her based on the fact that he was looking at the ground. "He's like you: an aspiring hunter hoping for an opportunity at Beacon. I'm giving you the same chance I gave him: attend my school, no strings attached. You won't be alone in this endeavor. What do you think?"
"What do I think?! I'd love to!"
"And now we're here."
Yang took the story in stride, which was definitely lucky for Jaune, whether he knew it or not, cause Yang had immediately wanted to punch him to protect Ruby's innocence when she said she knew him. However, before she could think about Jaune anymore, Ruby launched herself at her screaming about something involving "an ice girl" and "exploding".
"How could you leave me?!"
"Ruby, you know I had to if you had any hope of breaking out of your shell. You need to get away from me more, make other friends like skater boy here." Jaune, while at first confused by (and a little scared of) the nickname, seemed to accept it and nodded.
"Well all I ended up doing was exploding in the courtyard."
"Yikes, meltdown already?"
"N-no, she meant l-literally." They both looked at him, Yang in disbelief and Ruby in thankfulness. Unfortunately, as a result, they didn't see Weiss coming up behind them.
"YOU!" That was all it took for Ruby to scream and jump into Yang's arms. "You're lucky we weren't blown off the side of the cliff!"
"Oh my God, you really exploded." Weiss looked past the sisters and noticed Jaune standing there. Making eye contact was all it took for Jaune to smile his first genuine smile all day, but he remembered to not address her before looking back to the floor. Remember the deal, Jaune. Not yet. In the brief moment Weiss was distracted, Ruby had gotten out of Yang's arms and was standing in front of her.
"I'm sorry Weiss. I didn't mean to trip over your stuff or to blow you up, honest. Can we be friends?" To everyone else, Weiss looked absolutely livid at that request. However, Jaune knew her well enough to realize the actual emotion she had.
It was shame for what she was about to do.
"You want to be friends?"
Ruby perked up immediately. "Yeah, we can go shopping for school supplies or something." Weiss put on her "bitch face" (as Jaune called it) before talking back.
"Oh sure! We can go shopping, paint our nails, and talk about cute boys like tall, blonde, and scraggly over there." Weiss looked at him, and when she noticed the sisters were looking there as well, she smiled at him before putting bitch face back on.
"H-hey. I'm a n-natural blonde." The last part was a mumble, so only Yang could hear him. It was enough to make her laugh, though. Just then, they all felt a shift in tone, and looking up revealed that Professor Ozpin had taken the stage.
"I'll keep this brief."