A/N: This is the new fic and yet another contribution to JaunexEmerald fics from me. This idea is a little different from most of my other works, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.
The Thief's Knight
Summary: He took pity on her, and decided to take her in off of the streets. Being her knight in shining armor wasn't something he planned on.
*Chapter 1*
Jaune Arc sighed as he slumped in his desk at the Vale Police Department. About a dozen styrofoam cups of room-temperature coffee littered it, along with a ridiculous amount of paperwork that he had been putting off for about a week. The mere sight of tan folders produced a headache, and he grabbed the nearest cup to sniff its contents. Satisfied it wasn't rancid, he downed it in a hurry, wiping a bit of excess from his chin. "ORF, replay all voicemails from today, please. And play some music, too; 'Why Are We Here?' by the Achieve Men will do nicely." 'Today has been an utter shitshow. I honestly don't get paid enough for this; I ought to put in a request for a pay rise. I've earned it.'
The young officer had been running around all day, and just wanted a damn break; he had to deal with a speeding party-girl on a motorcycle, one of his superiors calling out due to a hangover, and it wasn't even ten in the morning yet. The light green numbers on his computer screen glowed '9:39', and he resisted the urge to plant his head firmly on his desk. 'The only thing that would do is knock over all those damn cups, and then I'd have to deal with yet another headache.'
"Going through all voice messages," ORF chirped happily, a steady rock rhythm blasting from the pair of speakers underneath his desk. The artificial intelligence program was provided to him by his direct superior, Captain Branwen, upon joining the force. "You have one new message, from Captain Belladonna."
"Play it through."
"Jaune, a store owner is reporting a thief breaking into his store only thirty minutes ago this morning," the message played. "As soon as you get this, head down to it immediately. The location is 5936 Fifth Avenue."
Jaune groaned. 'Dammit.' He really hated how he was the damn errand boy now. "Why is it always me who has to deal with this crap?"
"Well Mr. Arc, I presume it's because—"
"Rhetorical question, ORF. I know damn well why," the blonde grumbled. He stood up, pulling his jacket from the arms of his chair and fitting it on. He walked over to the coffee machine to pour a fresh cup, mixing in milk and two sugars, and fitted a lid on it to prevent it from spilling on the way. "Keep an eye on everything while I'm gone, okay? If anyone calls, direct them to voicemail." 'So much for hoping it would be a slow day.'
The music cut off, and Jaune passed by one of the secretaries on his way out, Ruby. "Hiya Jaune! What's going on?" She was hired only three months ago by her uncle, Captain Branwen, and she was very eager to make the most out of the opportunity given to her. Her neat dark hair was combed to perfection, and her slender fingers moved over her keyboard frantically.
"Got a call about a break-in," Jaune answered. "Captain Belladona wanted me to investigate it as soon as possible."'Do they always call me because I'm reliable, or is it because they just enjoy seeing me run around town?' Out of everyone in the Vale Police Department, it seemed as though Jaune was the one who was called on the most to deal with problems ranging from domestic disputes to break-ins. He once had to deal with a situation in which a teenager was being chased by a drunken partier who was trying to dump ramen noodles on his head. Definitely not one of Jaune's better cases.
"Oh, cool!" Ruby replied cheerfully, pumping her fist into the air as a way to cheer him on. "Go get 'em! Don't let those baddies get away with it!"
Her youthful enthusiasm managed to bring a smile to Jaune's lips, and he chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure it's just a matter of looking at the security cameras and getting a good look at the culprit's face. After that, a warrant and two days of searching should solve it. Nothing too big." 'I suppose if anything, it is a good way for me to keep getting experience in the field. Branwen always insists there's no substitute for field experiences.'
He walked outside, taking a sip of coffee, and was instantly greeted by warm sunshine and the familiar bustling of a city during the peak of noon. People were all over the place, rushing to get to a coffee shop to catch up with friends or trying to get back to work after their lunch break was up.
He could also hear the chattering of birds, and he ran a hand through his messy mop of hair before walking over to his squad car. "Alright. Time to get back to work." He fished the keys to his car from his back pocket, unlocked the door, and stepped inside. Jaune started the engine, a low grumbling now vibrating his seat, and the blonde officer leaned over to put his coffee in a cup holder and open the glove compartment to fish out a notepad and pen; he'd need to take notes, if he wanted to keep everything nice and organized and prevent even more paperwork spilling onto his desk.
Once those two items were stashed in the cavernous pockets of his uniform, he drove off towards the scene of the incident, only to groan in annoyance. "Oh for fuck's sake." 'Goddammit. I should've known I'd run into this.' He had hit the afternoon traffic, and it was bad; the line he was in was easily backed up a good two blocks, and he had to resist slamming his forehead into the steering wheel and honking the horn.
Jaune spied an empty side street to his right, and he quickly turned the wheel and sped off towards it in a hurry. His scroll vibrated in his pocket, and he pulled it out to see that Captain Qrow Branwen was calling him. 'The old man's probably on one of his drunken rants again. That, or he's getting over the hangover and coming in after all.' "Hello?"
"Hey, kid," Qrow groaned out. "Did you get Ghira's message?" His voice was mostly a slur, and it was easy to picture him either half naked with a bottle of whiskey in hand or stumbling around the office drunkenly giggling like an idiot as he bumped into absolutely everything he could.
'Of course he's still drunk. Maybe Ruby ought to start hiding his whiskey. That ought to solve a few headaches,' Jaune thought dryly. "Yeah, I did. I'm heading over to the place now. Are you actually going to bother showing up, or is Sun going to have to cover for your drunk ass again?" The old man really had a problem; Jaune hadn't forgotten the New Year's party last year, during which Qrow proceeded to raid the entire alcohol cabinet and drink nearly everything. In his drunken stupor, Qrow tried to get a demolition team to knock down the house of someone he didn't like and had sex with some random girl on his desk. It took a few apologies and several thousand lien to repair the damage, but it was still something that Ghira, Sun, Ruby, and Jaune had PTSD from.
"Whoa, I don't have a problem at all."
"The New Year's incident begs to differ."
"Gee, do I have to ask to borrow the car this weekend, Dad?" Qrow returned mockingly. "Yeah, I'm coming in. The headache's mostly gone; I'll take a shower and be in to lend you a hand with that mountain of paperwork on your desk. Oum knows we both need to get back on schedule."
"What's this 'we' bullshit? I'm not the one who calls out every three days due to a hangover."
"You wise-ass. I'm going to teach you a lesson when I get in," the older man jokingly threatened. "Catch ya later kid. And one more thing; don't let Ruby eat all the doughnuts. We don't need a repeat of last week."
Jaune laughed as he pulled out of the side-street and back onto one of the main roads into downtown Vale. He had a good memory of the incident in particular, and a week later, it still produced laughs at the station whenever it was brought up.
One of Jaune's partners, Ren, had brought in about six dozen doughnuts for everyone at the station from the bakery ran by his girlfriend Nora to commemorate them solving the case of a string of uptown murders and placing the culprit firmly behind bars. More like a soundproof metal vault guarded by two dozen armed men and women, but still.
And Ruby ate every last one, prompting possibly the world's most intense sugar rush. Poor girl literally bounced around the station, sending paperwork flying and causing the biggest mess Qrow and Jaune had ever seen. After the damage had been done and both Sun and Ghira managed to restrain Ruby until the sugar rush wore off, the place looked as bad as it did during the New Year's party. Except no one got laid and no demolition crew was involved. Jaune was just thankful that Qrow's lieutenant, Glynda Goodwitch, was able to fix the offices in a matter of ten seconds.
Jaune found the store that had suffered the burglary across the street, and he was surprised to see another officer had also gotten the call. He pulled up next to the sidewalk, and observed the scene from inside his car. The doors had yellow police tape over them to ward off any passerby, and Jaune stepped out of his car to greet the distressed owner. He was an elderly man with very small eyes, and he was balding. His hands were moving frantically in despair, and he was conversing with the other officer, Coco Adel.
Jaune got close enough to hear their conversation, both unaware of his presence.
"She just stole everything in my fucking refrigerator!" he complained. "I was saving that food for a friend's birthday party! I want that little thief to be strung from the gallows!"
"We don't hang people for petty theft," Coco sighed, apparently trying hard not to face-palm. "The most we'd be able to do, realistically, is have them either do community service for an extended period of time or pay a hefty fine. Either way, this isn't like someone took everything from you at gunpoint."
"Alright, I'm here." Jaune announced his presence, making Coco turn to him. "So, what's the situation?" 'Really? Someone nicked his friend's lunch, so he wants to hang them? We don't live in the Grimm Ages anymore, for fuck's sake.'
"Someone got hungry and decided to steal all this guy's food," Coco answered in boredom. "In my opinion, this is one we should just keep an eye out for. Not worth combing the damn city and wasting supplies and time."
"Hmm." Jaune started scribbling down notes in his notepad, looking at the victim of the theft. "Did they take anything else besides the food? Any money or anything of value?" 'Hm. Seems a little fishy to me. Something about this is off.'
"No," the shopkeeper answered, his hands tight. "She just took a platter of roast chicken and mashed potatoes and ran."
"You have a description?" Jaune pressed, writing down more.
"Yes. A young black girl with green hair and red eyes," the old man replied. "Looked rather raggedy. One of those stupid hoodlums, I bet."
Jaune didn't listen; he was too busy thinking, and he only felt a pang of pity for the thief. From the description given to him, and the fact she only took the food, he was able to piece together the motives. 'Poor girl probably lives on the streets, and has to resort to stealing in order to survive. It's sickening to make her live like the rats.'
The blonde closed his notepad, and he sighed. "Coco, I'm going out on patrol to keep an eye out. There are bigger fish to fry than this one."
"Gotcha."
"Wait! You're just going to let her get away with this shit!?" the owner demanded. "She should pay for her—"
"How about you let that decision rest with the actual law enforcement?" Coco suggested dryly. "Like he said, he will be keeping an eye out for the culprit. However, due to motives that appear to be out of desperation rather than malice, an arrest shouldn't be necessary."
She gave the blonde a subtle wink, telling him she had the situation with the owner under control, and Jaune silently sent a prayer to Oum as he made his way to his car. 'Thank God Coco is more patient when it comes to dealing with these kind of people. I wish I had that patience sometimes.'
He got to his car, stepped in, and left the scene.
The inside of the car was hot, even though he had only been outside for maybe five minutes at the most, and he groaned in annoyance as the hot leather burned him. "Ow..."
Jaune rubbed his trouser legs, and he drove down the street with his blue gaze looking for anyone who'd match the description given to him. He frowned when he saw a flash of lime green out of the corner of his eye after he drove a few blocks. 'Is that her?'
He pulled to the curb, stepping out of his vehicle and walking over to where he saw the color. It was a back-alley of some sorts, with a large dark green dumpster at the back. And like he suspected, there was the girl.
She was indeed wearing ragged clothing; stains littered her dark green pants, the knees were ripped, and her shirt was riddled with tears. Her hair was tied in a messy ponytail, and she was crouched down on the dirty ground wolfing down the food she had stolen from the store earlier; it was probably the first thing she'd eaten in a week.
Jaune couldn't help but feel sympathy for her. Here in front of him was the poor girl who truly had nothing and had to fight every day for her own survival. 'This is just horrible. I feel nothing but pity for her. No one deserves to live like this.'
She must have heard him coming, for her red eyes widened in panic and she tried to run, only to realize she was caught in a dead end. She looked around, and her voice quivered in fear as he approached. "P-please…"
"Don't worry," Jaune smiled in an attempt to show her that he wasn't some creep who wanted to do utterly revolting things or beat her. "I'm not going to hurt you. I promise." 'She's beyond terrified. I guess she's used to people trying to do disgusting things to her and now fears others as a whole.'
The girl's back was pressed against the grimy brick wall, shaking like a leaf, and the blonde officer knelt down to not intimidate her. "What's your name, miss?"
"E-emerald…" the girl answered, still trembling.
"Emerald…that's a nice name," Jaune murmured quietly. "What's a young girl like you doing out here? The streets are no place for someone to live."
"I...I don't have anywhere to stay…" she answered, no longer trembling as she started to feel just a little more comfortable around the young officer.
"No family?"
Emerald shook her head, and Jaune felt sickened. He always had it relatively easy, coming from a family that supported him and his life choices. But here, he saw just how cruel the world could really be, and he found he had a choice to make. Either he could take her in, or leave her like everyone else.
And he'd be damned if he was going to follow in the footsteps of those who did nothing.
His scroll crackled, and he muted it, not wanting to deal with Sun's shenanigans at the moment. The girl's red eyes traveled all over his uniform, and she swallowed. "A-are you going to arrest me?"
"No," Jaune answered, extending his hand. Emerald tentatively reached out, taking it, and Jaune stood up.
"I'm going to do what no one else is willing to do."
A/N: This note is longer than usual, because I want to alert you all of a few things. The idea of the 'Officer Jaune' AU came during the writing process for both Bended and Jaune's Bad Girl and I thought it would be more interesting to do something like that instead of following canon.
One of the problems early on that delayed this fic was this:
How am I going to rope everything together, especially considering this has an age gap. In the beginning of this fic, Emerald's about 14-15, and Jaune's 21. You can imagine the issues I'm having. So, I decided to go for a more realistic approach.
We won't actually see romantic feelings begin to blossom until Emerald's a little more into her teenage years, and when they do, they'll have to go through the struggles of trying to keep it under wraps. Because let's face it, not a lot of people (even in today's society) approve of a romantic relationship between an adult and their adopted child, even if they are both of consenting age.
Furthermore, this will have relatively irregular updates until A Drunken Marriage of Thievery is completed. Once that fic is done, this one will slot into that bi-weekly update schedule. Until that one is complete though, the most you can expect is an update once a month. This is just to keep me from getting completely swamped with my current workload at the moment.
If you have any further questions, you can find me on Discord; my name is below.
Discord: DPLxBeAsTxSnIpE #5371