Disclaimers : I do not own RWBY, everything in this story belongs to their rightful owners
"Normal " - speaking
italics- thinking \ flashback
Bold-yelling
He Who Endures
Ch 2: Comfort
"Please don't hurt me!" the girl begged, disappearing behind the kitchen counter. Jaune didn't know how to react, how should he react? There was a little girl that was hiding in an abandoned village right in front of him.
'What should I do?' He asked, should he leave her behind, or confront her. The options racked around in his brain for awhile. 'I can't just leave her, not without trying to talk to her.' He sighed mentally, and walked forward. When he looked behind the counter, he saw nothing but drawers. The girl was gone.
"What the-" Before Jaune could finish, one of the drawers bursted open, and the girl bolted from the kitchen down a hallway. "Hey, wait!" Jaune said, following the girl. She continued down the hallway and went into a room, slamming the door. Jaune tried to to open the door, but she locked it from the other side. He lifted his hand and knocked on the door with light hits to not scare her, he didn't . He knocked again, a little harder this time to be sure that she heard.
"Please leave!" Jaune heard on the other side of the door.
"I'm not going to hurt you." Jaune said in a soft voice to show he means no harm. She didn't seem convinced as she still didn't open. He sighed, trying to think of a way to get her to atleast talk to him without thinking he was going to do something. He perked up as he thought of something. "I'll be back." Jaune said, running down the hall and out the door.
He checked all housed that he hadn't before until he found what he had be looking for. Once he did, he ran back to the house with a bag that he found around his shoulder and walked up to the door. He dug in the bag and pulled out a can of peaches and, with the help of the knife, opened the can.
"You hungry?" Jaune asked, he wasn't given an answer. 'I swear, it's like talking to a wall. Or door in this case.' Jaune sighed. "Alright, I'll leave this here and turn around. You can get it when you when you feel like." He said, putting the can on the door's edge and turned to face the wall.
Not long after he turned around, he heard the door open and close in quick succession. He turned around and saw the can gone. He heard chewing on the other side as well as slurping.
"Wow, you must be hungry." He said with a smile, taking off the helmet. No response. "So... do you have a name?" No answer, only chewing and slurps. Jaune started to get frustrated, to the point where he was hoping that the door would talk to him. "How about I start, my name's Jaune... Arc" He paused slightly on his last name. Obviously uncomfortable with giving his last name, but he gave it nonetheless.
"Tigri." An answer, but it came as a mumble. Jaune moved closer to the door and placed his hand on the door.
"I'm sorry. I didn't get that, can you repeat it?" He asked, praying that she wouldn't go silent again.
"Tigri." The girl, now know as Tigri, said in a soft voice, but Jaune heard it. He smiled at this, he was finally getting her to talk. This was something he would do with his three younger sisters whenever they were too sad to face the world, or too mad to want to deal with it. He would sit out their door and talk them out of whatever they were feeling with a calm, soothing voice. It took time for them to actually talk to him, but he was patience with them. It would work most of the time with them feeling better and giving him a hug. Of course, he didn't expect this one to end the same way. She was scared, scared of him, and he was hoping that by the end of this that she would at least talk to him without a door in between them.
"That's a pretty name, do you have a last name?" He said, backing away from the door. As soon as his back laid against the wall, the door opened and an empty can was neatly placed in front of it. Her teal eyes stared at him with both fear and hunger.
"D-Do you have more?" Tigri asked, ignoring his question. Jaune nodded, deciding not to press the question, and dug into the bag and pulled a fruit cocktail can. He pulled the knife out to open it, but was interrupted by a yelp and the door closing. He looked up and saw the teal eyes disappeared, he quickly opened the can and put the knife behind him.
"Hey now it's alright." Jaune said, moving the empty can and letting the new can take its place. "Here, more food." Jaune cooed, The door opened again with Jaune in front of it. He saw her eye's again, still filled with fear and hunger, but she didn't close the door on him. She simply brought a hand out and took the can before he saw the door close softly. She was starting to get comfortable with him around. "So, can we please talk without this door?" He asked, willing to push his luck to talk to her.
He froze for a second, why was he trying to talk to her again? He should be more worried about himself then trying to befriend the faunus behind this door. After what he had just survived he should be trying to find the nearest populated town. And yet here he was, giving food to a child that he could be eating for himself on his way to a town. Before he could continue his thoughts, he heard the door open.
"Put your...thingys, in the other room." She said, pointing at the gun over his shoulder. He almost let out a chuckle to what she referred the weapons. Did she really not know what a gun was, it was almost considered second knowledge with all that goes on. But then again she must have some knowledge of them if she wanted him to leave them somewhere else. Still, he did as he was told and went to the room next to hers and took off all his weapons, and the armor to get rid of the weight on him.
He walked back out and to the door with nothing but the compression shirt that he took . He lifted his hand and gave it a few light taps before seeing the door open. Jaune saw her holding the doorknob along with a empty can. Jaune gave a gentle smile as he looked down at the girl, she didn't meet his eyes. Now that Jaune had a better look at her, he saw that she was dirty, really dirty. Dirt covered her from her head to her toes, Her hair nearly covered her ears as it was a complete mess, the rags she wore were full of holes. She looked similar to him a hour ago before he had washed up on the pond. She shuffled uncomfortably as Jaune looked down at her.
"C-Can you please stop staring like that." Tigri asked nervously, looking to the ground and shuffled her feet. Jaune blinked, he hadn't realized that he was staring.
"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't know I was staring." He said, she didn't respond. Instead she turned and walked to what he assumed was her 'bed'. The said bed was only just a mattress in a similar state as her clothes, filled with dirt stains and holes. She sat on the edge of the mattress, looking in the can to see what scraps she could eat. Jaune took a seat on the floor in front of her, watching her slurp the juice in the can greedily as if someone would take it. When she finished, she looked at Jaune, waiting for him to talk.
"Can I...can I ask something?" Jaune started, Tigri hesitated, but nodded. "Why are you here in this village?" The curiosity inside him made him ask the question, he wanted to know why a girl her age was here at an abandoned village fending for herself.
"I…" She started, but she hesitated, as if she was trying to find the right words to say. "I'm hiding." She said, looking out a boarded window that Jaune had not noticed.
"What are you hiding from?" Jaune asked, he didn't see anything when he explored looking for the food.
"I'm hiding from the monsters." She explained with a hitch in her words. She was scared, even as she saw nothing outside the window.
"Do you mean the Grimm?" Jaune asked, looking at her to see a reaction, the girl nodded her head. "They attacked this village?" Jaune questioned, once again the girl nodded.
"Yes, tho-those monster, came into the village an-" she tried to continue, but a sob cut her off. She continued to sob, dropping the can to the floor and bringing her hands to her face. Jaune could only stare and pity her. No one should have to watch their own village be attacked attacked by Grimm at such a young age, they would have to live with that horror all their life. His brotherly instinct took over and slowly, he got up and walked to take a seat next to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. As soon as his hand touched her, she launched towards him and wrapped her arms around him, crying on his shoulder.
His eyes widened in, but he didn't push her away, instead he gently wrapped her hands around her. He let her continue to cry for five minutes, five minutes turned to ten, and then twenty. Every so often she would let a wail of anguish out. She continued until she fell asleep, He tried to move her to the bed, but she had a strong grip on shirt. Not wanting to tear the shirt off, he let her stay on his lap and rested her head on his chest. Jaune remembered what he asked himself once again, Why was he with her? He looked down at her as she tried to move closer to him for warmth.
'Because I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I left her.' He sighed, grabbing what he assumed was a blanket and wrapped it around her as best he could. And for the rest of the night, He watched out of the window to be sure there were no Grimm would attack.
(End of Ch 2)
AN: I don't know about you guys, but to me, Jaune seems like the type to be a brother/father figure. Now for Tigri, she was inspired by Mimi pearlbaton from Re:zero, with some obvious differences. Anyway, that's all that I really have to say next chapter, but maybe you guys have something to say. So tell me in the review section, and leave questions there too if you have any.
So until next time, Lupus out
