"I don't know what to say…," said Jaune, staring dumbly at his distraught teammate, "...I-I thought-"
"You thought what, that Nora's face needed some rearranging?" It wasn't often Ruby got angry, and not to extant Yang tended to get (she called it getting "Yangry"), but suddenly waking up to the sound of Jaune sitting atop Nora, punching her in the face for no conceivable reason...yeah, that was a good reason to get worked up. "You're lucky we weren't heavier sleepers."
Jaune's face scrunched up in frustration as he tried to explain himself. "...look, I wasn't trying to hit Nora-"
"Some of us would beg to differ," Ren said; it didn't take a genius to figure out who he meant with that statement.
"No-! I mean...I thought I was hitting someone else!"
That didn't make things sound any better.
"Jaune, that doesn't make this sound better," she helpfully informed the scraggly blonde.
Nora sniffled a bit, and Ruby hugged her a little tighter.
"No, that's not what I- ugh!" Jaune tugged against Ren's hold a bit. "Could let go of me already?" When the other boy refused he added "I promise I'm not gonna hit anyone else."
Ren seemed to mull it over for a minute before he released his hold on Jaune's arms, letting him once again move freely. "Maybe you should start from the beginning," the dark haired young man suggested.
"You've been acting weird ever since we set up camp," Ruby pointed out, "How about you start there?" By her reckoning it was around then that everyone started acting weird (except for Uncle Qrow, but maybe that was because he was always a little weird), with Jaune being the first. She suspected something happened when he, Ren and Nora went to look for supplies, so hopefully she'd get an answer.
Jaune sat cross legged and pulled up some grass to play with. "Well…," he began, "when I split up with Ren and Nora to gather firewood I was looking in this house when…." The strain of bringing himself to recall what happened was clearly visible on his face. "...I thought I got attacked by...Pyrrha's dead body…."
That was...not what Ruby was expecting to hear. Ren either, by how shocked he looked. Unfortunately, she could still perfectly recall Pyrrha's last moments, and how her glowing ashes scattered on the wind; there wasn't a body left to suddenly reanimate itself, much less appear so far away from the place she died. Granted Jaune didn't know this yet, as the only person she'd revealed all of that to was Uncle Qrow, and only then because he'd pressed her for everything she could remember after she woke up from her brief coma.
It wasn't a subject she liked thinking about….
"And just now," he continued, "I...I must have been having a dream or something, because she kept telling me that it was Ruby's fault she died and that I should kill her because she was holding me back or something, I don't really remember."
Ruby breath caught in her throat. Someone- ...no, something had tried to have Jaune kill her while she was sleeping? The idea was...more scary than she thought it would be.
"That was when I realized the thing next to me wasn't Pyrrha, and I guess I got mad and started punching." He let go of the grass and looked up at the rest of them, "I swear, I didn't even know Nora was asleep next to me until Ren pulled me back just now!"
Thankfully Ren took the lead talking to Jaune since she was still trying to process the fact that something apparently wanted her dead, and had tried to use one of her friends to accomplish that goal and was tuning most of the world out at the moment. Was this some kind of Grimm? she wondered, I don't remember learning about any that could do this kind of thing, and we definitely haven't fought anything like that. ...Qrow did say I was special because of my eyes, but I don't know who else knows about that either! Ugh!
Shaking the conundrum away for the moment she instead focused on Nora. The girl had calmed down considerably now, and was now paying attention to the conversation her two guy friends were having; she still had tear stains running down her cheeks, and her face slightly puffy, but otherwise she seemed to be fine. Well, as fine as someone could be after being punched in the face repeatedly, but still.
"Hey, Nora?" Jaune suddenly turned to face the usually bubbly girl, "I'm sorry for attacking you. ...I don't know what came over me, but I swear I'd never do that kind of thing to you, no matter how mad I might get!" He held a hand out at his side. "Still friends?"
Nora seemed to consider this for a moment before getting up and grasping the proffered hand, nodding. "Apology accepted, Jaune." She gave a cheeky grin, "But you're still not getting off easy; I'm calling you 'Vomit Boy' for the next month."
Jaune chuckled, "I can live with that."
Seeing there were no hard feelings between Jaune and Nora put Ruby's mind a little more at ease; not enough to make her forget her potential brush with death, enough that she was able to crack a little bit of a smile at the pained but relieved expression on Jaune's face as Nora squeezed his hand.
Still, things appeared to be patched up, and it was still the middle of the night, so they should probably get more rest before heading to Haven.
Just a quick check on Uncle Qrow before we do. Seriously, I'm surprised he didn't wake up from any of that just now...
"I'm just gonna check on Uncle Qrow real quick, but we should get some rest before morning," Ruby announced, which caused everyone to look at her curiously.
"What are you talking about?" asked Ren.
"Uh, you know, so we're not tired when we start heading to Haven tomorrow-"
"Not that," Nora interrupted, "that other thing you said."
"...you mean checking on Qrow? I was gonna make sure his wound didn't get any worse."
"Who's 'crow'?" Jaune asked, very clearly having having trouble wrapping his mind around what she was saying.
"You guys know him!" Ruby insisted, "He's my uncle: kinda scruffy looking, wears a cloak like me, usually smells like booze?"
Her three friends all shook their heads.
"Sorry Ruby, not ringing any bells," Nora said.
"He's been traveling with us for the past week, and he was following for a while before that!" What's up with everyone? It's like when Yang pretends she doesn't know about the weapons I used to tell her about- wait! "Guys, if this is some kind of joke…!"
"We're not joking, Ruby; there's no one here but us." At this Ren gestured around then. "We certainly haven't found anyone else here, nor have we met anyone on the road."
"But he's right over-!" Frustration building, Ruby whirled around to where she remembered her uncle was sleeping, but when she turned around all she saw was a patch of ground where their supplies were stacked. "But, h-he was right there…."
"Ruby…," Jaune walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder, "we've traveling on our own for six months."
_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/
to be continued...
