The second chapter to "Team ANVL" as promised.
Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY. It is the intellectual property of the late Monty Oum, and his team and friends at Rooster Teeth.
Chapter 2 – Check Up
Weiss stood before the plain door before her with an uncertain feeling in her stomach. It was strange; if this were her father, or Ruby, or anyone really, there would be no issue. She always had an approach in mind for talking to people she was familiar with. Her father required professionalism, Ruby and Yang preferred "straight talk" as they preferred to call it. Jaune though… she was didn't know what he preferred.
In the past, Jaune always approached her, and she had a clear method for responding.
Crush it.
That had been her reliable solution to any conversation with Jaune Arc… in the past.
Now?
Now she wanted to thank him for saving her life, for helping her keep her promise to Yang: to be standing there with the rest of them when Blake came back.
She had never initiated a conversation with Jaune before, and was at a loss. True they had one another's number for their scrolls, but that was more a "buddy system" arrangement that Ruby put in place for both of her team and Team JNPR. They almost never interacted after Beacon's Unity Dance before the Breach, or during the reunion they had last week. Now though, given the situation they faced, the stakes at play, and their enemy, there would be a need for more communication between all seven of them. She thought to his personality, and believed a similar approach to Ruby would be the best bet.
She knocked tentatively.
…
She knocked again, a little louder.
…
She put her handle on the door, and gave a loud knock.
"Jaune?" she asked as she opened the door.
She gawked at the sight: books and papers strewn about all over the place along with a few empty bottles of soda. On a chair in front of the table near the balcony door sat her target, eyes closed doing the best boarbatusk impression she ever heard.
She carefully walked over to the blonde, and got a better look at his sleeping form. She noticed the book laying in his lap, and picked it up daintily so as not to wake him.
"The Science of Aura," she read the title.
She looked through a few pages, and skimmed detailed descriptions of aura's nature, how it interacts with the human body, and so on. She put the book on the desk, and looked at some of the papers strewn about the room. There was a crudely drawn picture of-
"Nora Mega Hammer Slam?" Weiss remarked reading the title of the diagram.
There was a picture of Nora breaking what looked like Hazel Rainart with her hammer. Behind Nora was a crudely drawn Jaune with wavy lines coming out of his fingers, likely his semblance, powering up her strike. At the bottom of the page was Nora's name and the date. Weiss snorted, and figured Nora's earlier presence was the main reason for the mess. Given the cherry flavor of the soda bottles, Ruby was definitely here as well, like Jaune suggested she be. There were other pages and diagrams that caught her attention as well. "Area Cloak" illustrated Jaune enhancing Ren's ability to hide the emotional states of multiple people from the Grimm. "Invisible Armor" showed Jaune bolster the defensive capabilities of his own aura in general. There were also texts on military tactics with an emphasis on squad-based combat, and strategic theories.
"Good to know he's taking this seriously," she said with a soft smile.
"Pyr…" he grumbled in his sleep, "No… Pyr… I can save you now…"
Her heart stilled at the words.
She turned to see the blonde tossing a little in his chair.
"Don't… send me away…" he whimpered, "I can… help…"
She walked over, and reached over to wake him, to reassure him that it was only a dream.
Her hand stopped an inch from his brow.
Would it be strange for him to hear words of comfort from her lips?
It hurt her to see him like this, but it hurt her more to know she didn't know what to say to help him. Their teams were supposed to be close, yet only Ruby, and occasionally Yang, ever spoke to him. She saw him shiver, and decided she could at least do something about that. She moved all the papers and books on the bed and put them to the side table on the opposite end of the room. Weiss then pulled the blanket, and wrapped it around the blonde, who began to relax more.
Weiss then saw the pile around her, and got an idea of how to help him.
xXxXx
Jaune stirred in his chair and opened his eyes. It was sunset... his body stood up immediately, and he banged his hip against the table.
"Ack!" he yelped out loud.
When he looked down to see if he broke anything important, he saw the heavy blanket of his bed fall to the floor.
"I didn't…" he began, but was cut off by a new sound.
"Jaune…?"
He looked to his right to see Weiss was sitting in the room on his bed. She was wearing loungewear, silk pants and a white t-shirt, with her hair down, and some papers in her hands. He noticed something else as he looked around, and the mess he swore he would clean up after resting his eyes had already been organized into neat piles and stacks on his bed positioned in front of Weiss.
"If you're looking for the mess, I organized it for you. The books are behind you, and are alphabetized. Any pages you may have been on are marked as well, so you don't have to scour the book page by page where you left off."
Jaune turned around and about, and saw Weiss' explanation was correct. It was a very nice gesture…
Was he dreaming?
It probably wasn't a good idea to ask that.
"Oh, thank you Weiss," said Jaune gratefully instead.
"You're welcome," said Weiss, before she returned her attention to the paper she was reading, "These are very good ideas. Did you spend the whole day coming up with them?"
Jaune glanced at the paper she was holding.
"Oh… you mean the team combinations? Yeah, Ren and Nora helped a lot. Ruby swung by also."
"Oh, I know," she said, "I saw some of her… eloquently labeled ideas. Mind explaining what Dragon Slayer is?"
"It's a team attack name; Ruby's better at it than me," said Jaune, before he cleared his throat, "Well, with Dragon Slayer, I basically amplify Yang's fists, and semblance. Ruby thinks it will turn her sister into a raging fireball with 'fists of fury'… It sounds cool, but I'm worried Yang will be too on board with the idea."
Weiss chuckled at the prospect.
"Oh I'm sure. She'd probably come up with horrible puns about it as well," said Weiss, "I can already hear how… radiant her hair would become."
The image of Yang's fiery semblance glowing her hair unimaginably bright came to Jaune's mind.
"I guess she'd be too… hot to handle?" he said with a chuckle.
"…"
"…"
They made puns…
The two had horrified expressions…
'Yang must never know,' they both thought.
They'd never hear the end of it.
Just then, he realized he was having a rather pleasant conversation with Weiss, with jokes too. There was no snark, or ruthless attack of rejection. It was just nice, and a year ago he would have been in heaven for something like this to happen. Now though, he wasn't sure what to think. He wanted to bask in the feeling of speaking pleasantly with her, but then he was reminded of all the times he ignored Pyrrha and his heart felt heavy with grief.
"I don't suppose our teams could get together tomorrow. I trust Ruby's description of your semblances, but I'd like to hear firsthand how they work so I know what I'm amplifying," he suggested in a professional tone, in attempt to change the topic.
Weiss was quiet for a moment, and Jaune instinctively braced himself for a rejection.
"That sounds like a good idea," she said calmly, "Now that you've unlocked your semblance, we need to think about how you'll mesh with the rest of us in battle."
He released a sigh of relief.
"And…" she began, "Since we're on the subject of trying to figure out the best way to work together… I'll start by saying thank you."
"Thank you…? What for?" he asked, surprised.
"Before the battle, last week specifically, I made a promise to Yang. I promised that I would be there with her should Blake come back to us. You helped me keep my promise, and my friends… no, my family is back together. Thank you, Jaune," she said sincerely.
"It's…" he trailed off, "You're welcome Weiss. I'm glad your team is back together. You all deserve to be happy."
Weiss looked at him sadly.
"You do too," she continued, before she faced him fully and scooted closer, "She'd be proud of you, you know"
He froze.
"What?" his voice sounded meek.
"Pyrrha. If she could see how far you've come, she would be proud of you," Weiss clarified, "You've held your team together all this time, you unlocked your semblance, and you've grown strong. She would be positively beaming."
Jaune looked away, a flurry of emotions in his heart. But a gentle hand cupped his cheek and guided his gaze to meet its owner's.
"I know… we aren't very close, given our history, but I know loneliness when I see it. If I can help, or if you just want to talk about it, I'll happily make the time. I owe you that much, and more."
Jaune lowered his head in thought before facing her again.
"I'll… consider it," he said sincerely, "Thank you, Weiss. You're very kind to offer."
Weiss broke contact with his cheek, and gave a playful smile.
"Of course I am. I am the very soul of generosity," she said proudly, before her eyes softened after a moment, "I do mean it though. If you want to talk, let me know. Promise?"
"…I promise," he said after a moment.
He heard her giggle, and felt her hand on his shoulder.
"Then I'll hold you to it," she said.
He nodded to her.
"Well… if there's nothing else… would you like a snack? I'm sure the cafeteria is still open. You probably haven't eaten much at all."
"Well, I suppose I am hungry," he commented as the mention of food stirred his stomach.
"Perfect," she said, "Ruby and the others haven't eaten much either. Let's all go together. We can talk about the team combos you, Ruby, Ren, and Nora came up with. Speaking of which, you gave me enough power to summon the queen lancer. With enough aura, do you think I could summon two creatures at once?"
"Maybe…" he stopped, "You have an entire system for this idea planned out, don't you?"
Weiss scoffed.
"Obviously, what do you think I did for the past two hours after checking up on you?" Weiss paused for a moment, "I can show you my outline for it later, if you like."
Jaune chuckled.
"That sounds grand."
Another chapter done, and posted.
The next chapter will be posted on Saturday 4/7/18.