Breath slid from Ren's lips with barely the energy of a waking cat. The door of his locker squeaked softly, for once dominating the air of the room with its sound without Nora's voice to drown it out.
It was somewhat peaceful in the locker room that evening, the space lit with eerie blue glow from Beacon's lanterns and the reflected light of the shattered moon flowing in through tall, cathedral-like windows. The latticed supports of the windows cast patterns across the floor, through which Ren stepped with light tapping from the tips of his shoes.
Another tapping echoed his own behind him. It carried no rhythm like Nora's skipping, nor did it have her hum of melody overtop. The taps were heavy, more akin to thumps. They lacked the harsh sound of armoured greaves or boots, and the lack of grace most Beacon students bore.
Ren smiled softly; he knew who it was. He laid his toes down, letting the moonlight cover him, and turned.
Jaune took a step back, recoiling his hand from Ren at his sudden turn. "Oh, hey Re-heh-en-" Jaune said through an embarrassingly awkward chuckle. "-Didn't think you'd ah, heard me."
"Maybe you should practice your stealth skills." Ren teased after a brief and subtle smirk. Jaune didn't seem to quite grasp what he had meant through tone.
"But I thought we were supposed to be… seen during the tournament." He said with a perplexed look, scratching his already disheveled hair. "Is stealth… allowed?"
Ren lowered and shook his head slightly with a wry smile. "What can I help with, Jaune?" he asked.
Jaune scoffed with loud objection. "Help? C'mon Ren, I don't need to have a reason to want to hang out with my buddy now, do I?" Ren started walking again, letting Jaune fall in beside him as he spoke – and giving just enough time to roll his eyes while his face was out of sight.
Jaune wrapped his arm around Ren's shoulder to punctuate his expression of their friendship, "You know what, Ren?" Jaune asked, clearly trying to be more nonchalant than he truly felt.
"What?"
"You and I should spend some more time together!" Ren frowned; not that he disliked Jaune, or spending time with his team leader, more at the weakness of his conversational guise. But he decided to let it play out, staying quiet and letting Jaune talk himself into what he really wanted to say.
"You know," he continued, "just us guys; two hombres, just the boys, we'll boys night it, we can have like a dudesfest, or a, uh… barbeque?"
"Jaune?" Ren chipped in, interrupting the list of ever-increasingly cringe worthy terms. "You don't have to give it a name."
"Right! Good thinking, buddy!" Jaune said, giving Ren a quick pistol-like gesture with his hand. The pair continued to walk; Ren in a peaceful, tranquil silence, Jaune in a somewhat awkward, falsely nonchalant kind of silence.
"Soooo." Jaune said as the pair stepped through another window's sliver of moonlight, nearing the exit of the locker room. "You know how guys like, help each other out when they have, problems and stuff?"
Ren smiled. "What do you need, Jaune?"
Jaune dashed in front of him, clasping his hands together in an almost prayer-like fashion. "Could you maybe help me with this teeny tiny little itty bitty problem? You see I want to fight in the tournament, but I also kinda suck at the whole fighting thing, and Pyrrha keeps saying my aura is really strong but I don't really know how to use aura or even really what it is like is it a force field or is it like adrenaline, can I punch with it or how is it gonna help me in the tournament and I was thinking hey that Ren guy is pretty smart so I was thinking maybe you could possibly show me how to use my aura to fight…
"…or something?" Jaune finished, running out of breath after a stream of consciousness that rivaled Nora's own, and giving a half goofy, half pleading smile.
It took him long enough to say it, Ren mused. "Sure." He said simply, giving a light shrug and a friendly smile. "Tomorrow morning?"
"Woo, kick his ass Ren!"
Ren sighed, trying to filter out the cries of his teammate and concentrate on what he was going to teach Jaune. She wasn't the only one distracting him; dozens of students, alone, in partners, or in full teams, were out training for the tournament. It was fast approaching, and the closer it got, the more exuberant the training grounds felt.
Full of shouts and bursts of echoing gunfire, tinted with the glimmer of aura pulsing off and on, it wove around him; until, like one attunes to ignore the brush of their shirt or the weight of their armour, the blankets of sound faded from his attention.
It was a helpful technique to have, especially when training or studying, but not the one he intended to teach Jaune.
His leader stepped into the dirt ring in front of him, grinning sheepishly at Pyrrha and laughing off Nora's teasing as he drew his simple sword.
"Forget the sword for now." Ren instructed, beckoning Jaune to stand closer. "You need to concentrate on your aura before worrying about how to wield it."
Jaune hummed, sheathing his sword. "Ok, Captain, what's the trick?"
"There's no one trick, Jaune." Ren explained, "You have to learn how to feel your aura through practice." He lifted his hand, letting the light gather around his fingertips in a gentle pink glow. "I can't teach you how your aura works," Jaune's face fell at Ren's words, as though he extinguished the last spark of hope he had at competing in the tournament.
"But," he continued, cracking a smile at Jaune's face that broke out in bright hope like an eager puppy's, "I can teach you some techniques with it."
Jaune nodded, grinning over Ren's shoulder at where he imagined Pyrrha most likely stood. "First, straighten your back." Ren commanded, demonstrating and watching as Jaune copied his posture. "Narrower stance, neutral shoulders." He added. "Try to be as relaxed as possible – but don't slouch!"
"Boreeeee-ing!" Nora called from the sidelines, "show him Crouching Flower, Hidden Storm!" She yelled the imagined name as though Ren knew it, making mocking hand motions through the air with added sound effects.
"Next," Ren said, "ignore the others."
"Aye, aye."
"Not just Nora. You need to forget the world around you, concentrate. Feel your heartbeat; slow your breathing. It's just you, concentrate on your body until you can feel your aura."
Jaune closed his eyes, breathing in deeply and relaxing his arms at his side. He slowed his breathing, and soon stopped twitching at Nora's 'Whu-aaaaaaa's and 'Whuy-teiii!'s.
Ren cleared his throat. "Ah, Jaune?"
"Yes, O Captain my Captain?" Jaune answered in a trance-like tone.
"You need to focus on your aura and your surroundings. You can't close your eyes at the start of every fight."
Jaune sighed, unfortunately losing his good posture and concentration, "I thought I was supposed to forget the world around me?"
"You need to be able to block out distraction, but you can't be oblivious to your enemy. When you're in a fight, keep your head completely in the fight. Ignore Nora's yelling, but pay attention to everything I do."
Jaune drew in a deep breath, fixing his posture and concentrating again, this time with eyes open and fixed on Ren.
"Now." Ren said. This could take a while.
Dirt sprayed into the air behind Ren as his feet slapped down and dragged along the earth, slowing him to a gentle halt. He raised his head, eyes locking with Jaune's.
The man's shoulders heaved, relaxing as Ren gave him a small grin. "Good!" Ren called, chuckling a little as Jaune punched the air triumphantly. Ren brushed his shoulders and sleeves, striding forward as the dust settled behind him. "Alright, now that you can generate force, we're going to try projecting it through your tools."
Jaune slid his sword free of its sheath eagerly, clasping it in both hands and falling into a ready combat stance immediately, despite his clear exhaustion. Sweat beaded on his brow, but he didn't reach up to wipe it aside, nor did he let his heavy breathing slump his shoulders and ruin his form or concentration.
He wasn't the same undisciplined fighter he had been at the start of term, even at their few weeks of time at Beacon, he had grown immensely, and today he displayed greater focus than Ren had anticipated.
Even so, he shook his head. "Not the sword." Ren explained, pointing to the sheath upon Jaune's hip. "You're going to learn to imbue your shield first."
Jaune obliged without objection, lifting his shield and unfolding it upon his arm.
"Concentrate on condensing your aura into your hand, like before, but hold it there." Ren instructed. Within a few moments of squinting concentration, a soft white glow began to emanate from behind his shield. If Ren had not been looking for it, he would not have noticed the gentle glow – this was exactly what would prove it a great advantage in battle, as a stealthy counter-attack.
Ren stepped forward, placing his palm on the centre of the shield. "Now, try pushing your aura into the shield." Jaune tensed, pushing he shield against Ren slightly. After a second's delay, the shield pulsed with light, pushing against Ren with far greater strength,
He held form, sliding back in the loose ground again with a small cloud of dust rising from his heels. He smiled, dusting himself off again. "Good, but try to push it all at once, the quicker you release it into the shield, the more force it will generate."
Jaune nodded, and tried again, generating a soft glow then a powerful pulse from the shield. Twigs, dust, and dirt sprayed in a ripple away from Jaune as he pulsed his aura through the shield. It was far stronger than the first attempt.
"Good. Now you have to try to time it. Nora?" Ren asked, waving to their teammate. "Would you do the honours?"
Nora leapt from her fencepost perch immediately, unfolding her warhammer as she skipped into the ring. "Coming Ren!" She sung in a high melody.
Jaune gulped. "You mean I have to-"
"Yes."
"And she's going to-"
"That's right."
Ren smirked. Jaune swallowed. Nora twirled.
"Ready, Blondie?" She teased, flicking the guard on her warhammer's trigger. Jaune nodded, and Nora charged forward.
She leapt into the air, swinging her hammer high over her head in a predictable arc. Jaune lifted his shield to meet her, tensing in preparation for her strike. The glow began behind his shield. Nora's hammer swung down. Jaune closed his eyes.
And his shield pulsed. It glowed with light at the perfect moment; just as the edge of Nora's hammer touched his shield it fired into effect, and sent Nora's powerful momentum in the opposite direction.
She flew into the air with a playful "Wheeee!", twirling to land astride her warhammer with the head imbedding in the ground. She landed well outside the training ring, in a remarkable display of the strength of Jaune's aura.
He fell to his knees, dropping both shield and sword and breaking into a cheery grin as he wiped the sweat from his brow.
Ren nodded in approval, and Jaune promptly lay back in the dirt with a deep, exhausted exhalation, his grin growing ever wider.