"We made it uncle Qrow," Ruby smiled down at the still injured drunk.
'I guess I live to drink another day,' Qrow thought to himself as he let out a sigh of relief and let his eyes, mind and body take a rest, 'I'm never staying up for a week ever again.'
Jaune stepped to the edge of the aircraft's doorway to take in Mistral's beauty as they approach the kingdom. 'A city devoted to art, but who knew it'd be so beautiful, just like Pyrrha,' Jaune fought back the tears as he glanced over at the other aircraft to see his teammates in each other's arms enjoying the other's company in comfortable silence, 'they deserve it, after all they've been through. But how long until one of them is left alone?'
Ruby turned her gaze onto Jaune, and approached his side. She wrapped her arms around one of his to comfort the young knight. "If you try to jump, I'll stop you and tie you to the chair over there," Ruby awkwardly said to break the silence.
"You know Ruby, I'm not that depressed. I could always be a farmer, or something," Jaune chuckled to himself, to Ruby's confusion and horror as she tried to pull him from the edge of the aircraft's entrance. "It's a joke Ruby. I said something similar when I was going through a rough time at Beacon."
"Oh, haha, I guess," Ruby nervously chuckled as she let go of Jaune's arm. She pressed her back against a wall and slid down to sit, "are you sure you're alright, Jaune?"
"I'm pretty sure I am?" Jaune questioned as he took Ruby's silent invitation to sit next to her.
"I saw you training at night a few weeks ago," Ruby averted her gaze to the floor to escape Jaune's eyes, "I'm sorry I wasn't fast enough. I couldn't save her."
"It's not your fault, Ruby," Jaune leaned his head back against the wall, "Even if we were all there, we would have just got in the way. Even if you did get there in time, you would have died too, and I don't think I could have handled losing two of my friends at the same time."
"But weren't you two more than friends?" Ruby asked, "I mean, if you're comfortable talking about it."
"It's fine, Ruby. I gotta talk about sooner or later," Jaune closed his eyes, "For a moment, yes, we were more than friends. Right before she fought Cinder, she kissed me, and in that moment, I realized that all this time, she felt this way about me and I was too stupid to realize it sooner. The future I could have had with her was ripped from me, from us. As a fellow leader, you understood the pressure we must take on our shoulders. In a way, we could understand each other that none of our friends ever could. You're one of my closest friends, Ruby, and if I had lost you too, I don't know what I would have done."
"I wouldn't want to imagine it," Ruby replied, "I don't want you doing anything stupid just because I died. If you want, we could train together, those videos are only beginner stuff. Besides, I feel like I'm getting a little rusty with the lack of training."
"I'll think about it," Jaune sighed, "I don't think I'm ready yet."
"Jaune, you need to keep moving forward," Ruby turned her body to face him, "I've seen the look on your face when you train with those videos. You've come far enough, I know you're strong, and I don't think you should continue torturing yourself like this. It hurts me to see you so broken and you're keeping yourself broken by watching those videos over and over."
"I told you Ruby, I'm just not ready yet," Jaune repeated himself a little louder, "I'm not ready because it was my mistakes that led to Pyrrha's death. I was supposed to stand guard while Ozpin was doing this weird thing to Pyrrha and this other girl. Turns out, it was my fault that Cinder gained all this power and became virtually unstoppable. I still see myself making the same mistakes with our team."
"Then you need to become better!" Ruby scolded, "You can't get better if you're stuck in the past, if you don't keep moving forward then it's a given that you'll make the same mistakes over and over again. I know you loved Pyrrha, but don't honor her memory like this. Honor it by being a doing whatever it takes to become a better huntsman so you don't have to watch anyone close to you die again."
"I said I'll think about it," Jaune said as the aircraft landed. He grunted as he got up to leave the aircraft but paused before jumping out, "I'll go with Ren and Nora to find a place to stay while we're here. You should help Qrow get to a hospital to get that stab wound looked at, they should have antidotes, even if the poison was from a Faunus."
"If you change your mind, Jaune, I'm always here for you. I'm not going anywhere since I don't really have anyone else to turn to," Ruby blurted out before Jaune leapt off the edge of the aircraft's exit.
"The guards told us that there's a pretty empty inn in town that'll let us stay for free if we do a couple odd jobs for them," Ren told Jaune after he jumped off the aircraft, "I think we should check that out first."
"Yeah, I don't know about either of you, but I know I'm sick of sleeping on the ground all the time," Nora added as the trio began to walk off.
"I've been meaning to ask, how long have you two been together?" Jaune asked, "I mean not together together, but you know what I mean?"
"Together? I'd have to say maybe eight or nine years now," Ren answered as he smiled at Nora smiling right back at him.
"Together together? Several hours," Nora added.
"I was wondering when it would happen," Jaune teased, "I'm happy for both of you."
"Well, after what happened with the Nuckalavee, I realized that I should stop hiding my feelings because who knows how much time we'll have together?" Nora said ecstatically.
"Even if I was the one who made the first move," Ren chuckled, as Jaune laughed.
"Are you sure this is the right place?" Jaune skeptically asked. After a couple hours of walking and searching, the three found themselves standing in front of a vomit-green inn which seemed to be in slight disrepair. Jaune reluctantly followed the couple who confidently walked in.
"The guard said to go to the city's capital, take the street that leads towards the tower then take two lefts then a right, this is the first inn that we've come across, so I'm sure this is it," Nora explained.
"You three must be the huntsmen and huntresses that Jack told me about," the innkeeper greeted as they approached the front desk, "He gave me a call as soon as he landed, but he told me there were five of you."
"Our friend's uncle was injured, so she took him to the hospital for some treatment," Ren explained, "They'll be here later, so we'll check in for them to reserve a room."
"How many beds would you fellas need?" the innkeeper asked.
"Two rooms, and four beds," Ren answered almost immediately.
"Uh, four beds?" Jaune asked.
"Ren and I talked it over on the ride here and decided that we can sleep together, we can save a little bit of lien and besides, we're used to it," Nora answered.
"Alright, I guess I'll take the key to the room, what are you guys gonna do?"
"I was thinking of exploring the town with Nora, pick up some food. Do you want anything?" Ren answered.
"I'll be fine with whatever tastes good, I guess," Jaune left the card of lien on the counter and picked up the pair of keys, "I'll message Ruby the address so she knows where to go when they're done at the hospital."
"Sounds like a plan," Nora waved as she happily walked off with Ren's hand in her's.
Jaune sauntered into the room and set his things down. He took a moment to unsheath his sword and set the pair down against the wall. It had been his first time getting a good look at the new appearance of his weapons. He took the time to admire the weaponsmith's metalwork.
"He was right, the gold does accent the shield quite nicely," Jaune admitted to himself, "I wish Pyrrha could see how far I've come."
Jaune stared off into space letting thoughts come and go. He reminisced about his days at Beacon. He thought about the first day of Beacon, how he made so many friends at once. He remembered the nights that he trained with Pyrrha on the rooftop, how he bonded with her over the exchange of their blades. He remembered how times were much more light hearted before Beacon's fall. He wanted to go back to those days so much. He remembered Pyrrha's death, how he was useless and hopeless. Then he remembered Ruby's words.
"We're back," Ren announced as he opened the door. He noticed the sword and shield leaned up against the wall and set down his father's blade before joining Jaune and Nora at the bed.
"What's on your mind?" Nora asked to break the momentary silence.
"Just thinking of stuff. Our days at Beacon, our journey that led us all here, Pyrrha," Jaune trailed off at the mention of her name, "I was talking with Ruby on the ride here, and she offered to train with me."
"That's great Jaune. You may be our leader, and you may be a decent tactician, but I still gotta admit that you suck at fighting," Nora jumped up in excitement.
"She is one of the best fighters in our grade, you know," Ren added.
"I'd say only second to Pyrrha, but then again, she was able to get into Beacon two years early," Nora said in a matter-of-factly voice.
"Guys, I get it. She's one of the best fighters I know, but it's happening almost the same as what happened with Pyrrha," Jaune retorted, "I'm just scared that I'll lose her like I did with Pyrrha. It all started with training."
"I get that there are some parallels here, but think about it this way, you weren't able to do anything back then, no one could. None of us had seen that kind of power before and we didn't know how to fight it. Of course it'll happen again, we're on a campaign against Cinder and whoever she's working with. We're chasing after it. The best thing you can do is to get better and help each other sharpen your skills so it doesn't happen again," Ren said in his attempt to comfort Jaune, "become a better huntsman so you can forge your own destiny."
"You're right, Ren. I wasn't even able to come close to even fighting by Pyrrha's side. I need to make sure that I'm ready for the next time, and next time all of us are coming home alive," Jaune confidently said, accepting Ren's advice as he got up to leave, "Thanks for everything, Ren, you too Nora."
Jaune walked down the hall to Ruby and Qrow's room only to pause outside the door. He panicked for a bit, ashamed to face Ruby again because of his behavior and what he said earlier that day. After taking a few deep breaths, he raised his hand to knock.
"Come in," Jaune heard Ruby yell from across the room.
Jaune slowly opened the door and stuck his head through, "Hey Ruby, got a moment?"
"Sure, come on in," Ruby looked up from the envelope she had just sealed as Jaune closed the door behind him.
"I want to apologize about how I acted earlier. I'm still not really over Pyrrha, and I'm scared that what happened with her would happen to you too. You're one of my best friends and I just don't want to lose you too," Jaune said penitentially.
"I understand, Jaune, we're all still recovering from what and who we lost during the invasion," Ruby sympathised, "remember when we first met?"
"How could I forget, crater face?" Jaune taunted.
"Whatever, vomit boy," Ruby bantered back, "but back to my point. My mom used to tell me a ton of bedtime stories, but my favorites were always the ones about two heroes. The ones I loved weren't about the heroes who were born with immense wealth, talent, charisma and strength who were destined for greatness from birth, no, the stories I loved always started about a nobody who made the right decisions. The nobody who met someone, sometimes they were lovers, sometimes they were good friends, but they grew together. They lost some battles, but they won even more. Sometimes the battles were just the darkest days that they had together, but they always pulled through because they had each other. When I met you, lying in that crater after that dust explosion, I was having a rough day. I was in a strange place, surrounded by stranger people, but you helped me. Not a knight in shining armor, but a friend. A knight whose armor has seen the darkest days, and fought the toughest battles. Looking up at you, it reminded me of all those stories."
"That was beautiful," Jaune wiped the tears that threatened to fall from his eyes as he fought back more and sniffled his mucous back. "I guess we're those two heroes, right?"
"That's right Jaune," Ruby smiled, "we've struggled a lot since we left Patch, but that just tells us that there's a lot of room for us to grow. Have you seen the video of uncle Qrow fighting Weiss' sister in the courtyard?"
"Yeah, that fight was the best. They were much better than the students fighting at the festival," Jaune answered excitedly.
"I know, that's what I dream of," Ruby said, losing herself in the image, "I wanna be so good that I can go toe to toe with uncle Qrow and beat him in a serious fight. Then I know that I'll have the skill to be the kind of huntress that can help people."
"Then I guess my dream will be to be able to go toe to toe with you and beat you while you're serious and I'm just as drunk as your uncle in that fight," Jaune teased.
"Then it's a deal. From now on, we'll work to be the heroes that people will tell about to their children in bedtime stories," Ruby exclaimed, "and you'll be my damsel in distress."
"Hey, that's not fair! I'm the one who rescued you from that crater at the start of the year," Jaune said in response.
Author's note: It's weird being back to writing fics again. If people are wondering where I've been, I've just been super busy with school and relocating over the last couple of years. I started some semi-professional projects and now I have some time to relax for a while. I'm pretty rusty at writing, and I'm the type of person who is more used to dialogue heavy sort of writing. Anyway, tell me what you guys think, any type of criticism is welcome.
