He felt his entire body shake as his opponent's mace slammed into his shield, and as he saw them wind up for another attack, quickly sidestepped the overhead swing and slashed at his opponent twice. Once aimed for the legs to disable and slow his opponent, the other aimed for his stomach to hopefully slow him down through pain. Only one attack went through though, and it wasn't his. Jaune watched as his enemies mace swung down, his reaction time barely being fast enough to raise his shield up to block but his shield didn't matter. He felt and heard his arm snap as his shield fell to the ground. A feeling of dread welled in his chest as he realized that he might die here, but that feeling quickly went away when he jerked awake in his bed.
Jaune couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to happen given his dream that night. He ended up skipping breakfast because he couldn't get the wet snapping sound of his arm out of his head and it ruined his appetite. He sat in Oobleck's history class wondering what that dream could have meant. He couldn't get a good view of his opponent in the dream but he felt like he recognized them from the school. Oobleck's over-enthusiastic approach to teaching seemed to cause Jaune to be able to tune out what he was hearing, and even though it would've helped him, seeing as Oobleck was lecturing about tactics used during the Great War, Jaune couldn't help but not pay attention. Pyrrha was sitting next to him, and she had her own problems paying attention. She kept noticing and wondering why Jaune was so out of it today, from when he refused to eat pancakes with her and the rest of their team, to now when he wasn't paying attention to the one thing that he enjoyed about history. She nudged his arm and whispered to him. "You realize we're discussing Fabian tactics right? The ones that we had to use to win the Great War."
Jaune very quickly responded "Yeah, Fabian tactics. You run from your opponent, who has displayed military prowess over you, and fight in the shadows to slowly overcome them while suffering little losses on your end. it utilizes the old thought that you can win a battle not by beating your opponent but by making them run out of supplies and demoralizing them to the point that they turn on their commanding forces."
"Mr. Arc, while your knowledge is commendable," Oobleck seemingly warped over to Jaune's desk and continued, "it is my class and I do not enjoy your interruption. However since you seem so knowledgeable on Fabian strategy, I'd like a two page essay on my desk tomorrow regarding it's use in historic wars."
Jaune sighed and dropped his head on his desk resulting in a resounding thud. Pyrrha rested a hand on his shoulder and silently apologized. Jaune remained quiet for the rest of the class still pondering his dream.
"So what's going on? You've had this thousand yard stare, and have been ignoring almost everyone and everything for most of the day." Pyrrha interrupted Jaune's pondering again.
"Wha? What are you talking about? I just didn't feel like having breakfast…" Jaune lingered on that last item. "I've just been feeling out of sorts lately." He didn't think that anyone else would want to hear about his dream, or the fact that he's just been feeling uncomfortable around people since it. He still couldn't think of anyone who had been in his dream and it unsettled him.
"Jaune, you realize you can tell me what's bothering you no matter what, right? I'm your teammate." Even though I want to be more, she thought to herself. "And it doesn't help the rest of our team to have our leader unsettled and not paying attention in class. especially during a lecture on tactics that we should know for combat."
"Fabian tactics are for long drawn out wars. They would have no effect on helping us against Grimm, only against people." Jaune latched onto the last part hoping to get himself out of this conversation. "Either way, I really don't feel like talking about it now. I'll come eat lunch with everyone else if it'll make you happy."
"Fine, but you're going to tell me what's bothering you tonight or I won't give mercy when we're training." Pyrrha teasingly mentioned, hoping that he would tell her.
"Yeah, sure. Sorry." Jaune rubbed the back of his head rather apathetically. "We should get to lunch before Yang teases us about being alone too long." He blushed while chuckling a little bit thinking about the last time she teased them. Yang was relentless, and didn't stop teasing them for nearly a week.
"Oh, yeah…" Pyrrha blushed and started to walk away, I wish he would just hold my hand, she thought while making her way towards the cafeteria.
Yang sat with the rest of her team eating pizza in the cafeteria. "I told you they'd deliver to the school, and even if they didn't we could've just asked Ru~ to go pick them up for us."
"I would've done it in a heartbeat, sis!" Ruby managed to say while stuffing her face with the pepperoni pizza Yang had bought for them. "It's so much better than the school lunches!" she said with a satisfied sigh after devouring her third slice.
"I will admit that it's quality is quite high." Blake said reaching for her second slice, only to have it taken away by Ruby.
"Ruby, don't steal people's food. It's not nice." Weiss scolded Ruby for doing so as she guiltily gave Blake the piece of pizza she had stolen.
"Sorry Blake... " Ruby eked out. "Oh hey Jaune and Pyrrha finally decided to show up." Ruby noticed them as they walked into the cafeteria ten minutes later than expected, seeing as their other teammates had already shown up and were eating the pizza that they brought in. She waved to let them know where they were seated.
"Oh? Where were the lovebirds this time?" Yang tauntingly asked as Jaune and Pyrrha walked over to where the rest of the group was.
"Yang…" Pyrrha said somewhat threateningly while staring the blonde down.
"What I was just joking around!" Yang retaliated, "I'm sorry though, I don't mean to be mean about it." she added after Ruby gave her a glare.
"Eh it's fine, I can take it." Jaune said "Granted that might be the only thing I can take." he added on with a slight laugh.
"Here have some pizza, to amend our teammate's transgressions." Weiss said while offering Jaune some of the food they were eating.
"Don't mind if I do." Jaune reached over and grabbed a piece, making sure to watch for Ruby stealing his piece.
The rest of lunch went by pretty quickly through Jaune's perspective, what with Nora's over-exaggerated stories, Ruby enrapturement with them, and Ren correcting Nora on points where she overemphasized. He thought back to the dream and figured that it probably meant nothing.
After lunch, he ended up having to leave his team and headed off to math class with Weiss and Ruby. Normally Jaune tried to talk to Ruby about strategy during their walk down there, but today he was silent. Ruby noticed Jaune frowning about something on their trek towards the dreaded class and just stepped in front of him and went "Nope! No time to be sad or grumpy today, Jaune. At least not until after math."
"What? I'm not." Jaune, rather shocked, replied quickly. Ruby examined his face closely after he said that and silently decided that she wouldn't pry further.
"Well I'm going to be sad after this class." Ruby mentioned. "That is unless Weiss helps me study for the upcoming test! Please?" She looked over at Weiss with widened eyes begging for help.
"Oh fine, but don't come running to me on the test day asking for notes. I won't give them to you this time. Studying is work and it does get results." Weiss chided Ruby while ruffling her hair.
"But work's hard Weiss!" Ruby whined. "I still have no idea why they're having us learn math, how does math help with killing Grimm?"
Neither Jaune or Weiss felt like answering that question so Ruby just let it drop, seeing as they were directly in front of the classroom's door. They stepped in and were greeted by slips of paper being on all of the desks and 'Pop Quiz!' written on the blackboard.
"Why have you forsaken me?" Ruby asked while facing the ceiling, elongating each word.
"Oh relax Ruby you'll do fine." Weiss reassured the dark-haired girl while moving around the classroom to go to her seat.
"Oh man, I was so distracted this morning I forgot to even study…" Jaune lamented as he walked towards his own desk.
"Distracted by what? Pyrrha?" Ruby winked at Jaune.
"What? No, something else." Jaune, as usual was flustered by anyone mentioning anything about him and Pyrrha.
"Ah, well then. Best of luck Jaune! Lord knows I'll need it." Ruby sighed as she moved to her seat.
Their teacher walked in shortly after Ruby arrived at her desk and said "You all have 30 minutes to complete this quiz. It's only 3 questions, and no multi-parts either."
"Do we get a formula sheet?" Ruby asked while raising her hand.
"Ms. Rose, I'd ask you to wait for your hand to be completely raised before asking your question, but I know it'd be pointless." He chuckled and then continued, "I'll write up the formulas you should need on the board, so you should be able figure it out pretty easily."
"Thanks Professor Argenteus!" Ruby cheerfully said and started to focus on her quiz, figuring that it'd take her a bit longer to take care of it than most other people. Math wasn't her strongest subject, and Weiss wasn't helping, what with her insistence on cuddling Ruby when they should be studying.
It ended up taking Ruby thirty-five minutes to finish the quiz, but Professor Argenteus knew that she had trouble with his lessons, and felt like not pressuring her about the other five minutes. Weiss ended up finishing the quiz after fifteen minutes, and it took Jaune twenty-one minutes to finish it up. After receiving the last of the tests Argenteus started a lecture that went on for the last hour of the class, handing out a packet for notes afterwards, and made sure to hand a marked one along with additional problems to Ruby. "For you to practice. Math is just like everything else, it gets easier with practice Ms Rose. If you take it seriously you can easily solve every problem with math. Including taking down Grimm, granted that's mainly applied through physics, which I highly recommend you take." Argenteus knew that she really wouldn't take his advice seriously, which saddened him, but anything to help out a student.
"Thanks Professor! I'll look into it." Ruby waved and smiled as she left the class.
Weiss and Jaune were waiting outside for her, as they usually do. "What'd Argent want with you, Ruby?" Jaune asked
"He was actually telling me that I should practice math more, and that it actually is useful for defeating Grimm if I were to apply physics." Ruby responded "As well as informing me that I should probably try to study more, Weiss…" She followed Weiss' name with a joking glare in her direction.
"What! It's not my fault. You could study by yourself, you know." Weiss said apologetically.
"Yeah I could but that's boring!" Ruby started skipping away expecting Weiss and Jaune to follow.
Jaune began to follow the slow skipping, but then realized he had made a promise to Pyrrha about practicing tonight. "Oh, sorry Ruby, I've got to go. Pyrrha wants to practice tonight and I made a promise, and you know how that goes."
Ruby turned around and laughed as she remembered the image of Jaune in a dress on the night of the dance. "Yeah! You shouldn't keep a lady waiting Jaune!"
"Say hi to Pyrrha for me, Jaune!" Weiss told him as she took off after Ruby. "Ruby I promise to help you study this time!"
"Will do. Stay out of trouble you two." Jaune mentioned while walking away. Now how am I going to talk about my dream with Pyrrha. I don't even know what I was thinking when I promised to tell her. Maybe I should just lie...He thought this to himself as he was heading to his locker to grab his gear before going to the rooftop. He both loved and hated these rooftop escapades that she planned for them. He enjoyed them because he knew he was getting stronger and better at fighting through them, but they infuriated him because he disliked how he couldn't seem to win.
"We should probably head to the library and try to get some of this homework for our dust class done, and probably work on some of your math homework too Ruby." Weiss mentioned as she walked alongside her.
"But Weiss, I'm tired." Ruby whined while leaning onto Weiss.
"If we can get some of this work done, I'll make us hot cocoa, okay?"
"Yay! I promise I'll do my best!" Ruby stopped leaning on Weiss and resumed skipping down to the library.
Pyrrha was waiting on the roof. She was still hoping that Jaune would tell her what was going on with him. She sat there on the edge of the roof staring off at Ozpin's tower, when she heard the door open behind her "Jaune is that you?" She asked while mesmerized by the green glow of the tower.
Jaune slowly walked out of the door, slightly surprised by her alertness. "Oh hey Pyrrha. I didn't keep you waiting, did I?" He asked while moving over to sit next to her.
"Not for too long this time. I came up here to think actually. I wasn't expecting you for at least another ten minutes." she paused, looked over at him and asked "So are you going to tell me what's been bothering you today?"
"Honestly I was hoping you'd forgotten about it," he sighed and looked at the green light emanating off of the tower in the distance. "I really shouldn't be this bothered by it to be honest. I've just been having this recurring dream for the past week."
"Oh? So you've been having this dream for a week now? And you didn't think to tell any of us?" Pyrrha asked this series of questions incredulously. "Seriously Jaune, you really need to talk to us. We can help."
"I know you can help, but I didn't think it was that bad. It's just bothering me because I figured it would stop by now." Jaune shook his head and stared out at the night sky.
"Talking about the dream tends to help. Even if it's just getting it out of your head." Pyrrha rested her hand on his shoulder
"I just… I don't really know. It always starts in the same way, I'm in combat with someone and they slam their weapon, I think it's a mace, into my shield. I manage to block the first blow just fine, but they go for another, and I try to retaliate. My retaliation seems to change every night, but the end result is the same. I hear the weapon hit my shield and the snapping of my arm as it breaks." Jaune stared out at the sky and shuddered, "It's that sound. I can't get it out of my head and it just makes me sick to my stomach, it distracts me because of the pain that follows that wet snapping."
"Oh… I'm so sorry Jaune. I didn't realize… Do you want to just do Aura training tonight and skip the combat?" Pyrrha didn't want to cause him to think back to the dream. "Or we could head down and have some dinner with Ren and Nora…" or by ourselves.
Jaune snapped back to reality, and quickly responded, "No I think that combat training would be better for me right now." Maybe if I train that dream won't become a reality. He stood up and walked back towards the door to get to more stable ground and pulled out his sword. Pyrrha followed him shortly afterwards and stood in front of him with Milo out in its sword form.
"You get to start this time." She murmured while looking at his form, making sure that he stayed in the correct stance. Jaune looked at her and contemplated his options knowing that he wasn't going to be pressured by her moving first. He raised his shield and started circling her as she did the same. He quickly hopped forward slashing towards her while moving his shield to allow for more freedom with his swing. Pyrrha reacted by raising her shield up to block it and swinging for his legs. Jaune lowered his shield and went for a feint by making an obvious pass at her open arm. Pyrrha pulled her arm back to avoid getting hit, but Jaune redirected the blade up towards her shoulder. Pyrrha felt the sharp steel sting against her skin, and reacted by swinging her leg towards his to knock him over. He remembered this trick from previous sessions and quickly hopped back. He raised his shield and held his sword to the side, back to how he was before the first slash.
"I finally got a hit on you." He let out a sigh of relief thinking back to the dream and how he might be able to avoid it.
"Never pause in the middle of a fight Jaune." Pyrrha said as she quickly rushed him with her shield to push him back and throw off his balance.
Her shield collided with his chest as the air in his lungs quickly exited. He didn't have much time to recover as her assault didn't stop there. Her sword raised to slash across his chest, and he barely got the shield up in time. Pyrrha used the impact of her sword on the shield to very quickly reset to a neutral position. Jaune felt the impact on his shield and immediately that sound from the dream entered his head.
"I forfeit." Jaune said absentmindedly, while letting his arms drop as he stared upwards into the sky.
"Are you okay Jaune? I didn't think that I would actually get through your Aura." Pyrrha put her weapons back in their sheathes as she moved towards him.
"Yeah, it's just that sound. The minute your sword hit my shield and I felt that tension it just wouldn't leave my ears." Jaune set his weapons down and tried to shake his head to clear it.
"I'm sorry... " Pyrrha looked at him wondering what she could do to help him.
"Let's just go grab some food and go to bed." Jaune slowly walked towards the door while still being absent. He was thinking back to classes and what all work he had to do before he could actually get sleep. "Oh man, I forgot about the paper I was supposed to write for Oobleck."
"I can try to help with it if you want." Pyrrha mentioned as she kept stride with Jaune as they headed back towards their team's dorm.
"Nah it's fine, I need the refresher for tactics." Jaune waved his hand as he said this. "Hey what do you think Ren made for dinner?"
"Probably pancakes, or waffles. I don't think Nora lets him make anything else." she laughed as she watched his hand thinking about just grabbing it.
They quickly arrived at their dorm and opened the door to see two plates of waffles with butter and syrup out next to them, along with a note saying that Ren and Nora had headed out to go see a movie in Vale and they'd be back late. It also said not to stay up for them.
"It looks like you were right." Jaune stated as he grabbed one of the plates and put the butter and syrup on both his waffles, stacking them as he grabbed a knife and fork and cut into the fluffy pastry.
Pyrrha wondered if Nora set this up so she and Jaune would be alone for dinner, but then quickly brushed that thought away as she realized that Nora probably just wanted to go watch the newest superhero movie. She silently grabbed her plate and moved over to her desk and methodically eating her food.
Jaune pulled out his history book and started writing up notes for Fabian tactics, quickly finishing up the two page essay for Oobleck's class. Shortly after he and Pyrrha moved to a communal desk to work on their math homework together.
"Hey Pyrrha?" Jaune asked after they had finished all their homework, laying in his bed.
"Yes Jaune?" She responded while doing maintenance on Milo.
"Do you think tomorrow I could hold your hand while we walk to class?"
Pyrrha's face flushed crimson and she fumbled over Milo resulting in it falling from her lap and bouncing off the floor. "I-I-I-I guess you could… I mean I'd really like it if you could." she stuttered out clearly flustered.
"Okay. Good night Pyrrha." Jaune smiled as he turned over and pulled his blankets over his body.
"Good night Jaune." She walked back over to her bed and slowly settled into sleep.