Disclaimer: Rooster Teeth owns RWBY, not me.


"Haven's a long way to go."

A gauntleted hand reached over and ruffled Ruby's hair as Pyrrha chuckled slightly.

"I know, Ruby. I'm from Mistral, after all."

Silver eyes roamed over the other three figures standing with her in the snow. Ren and Nora were dressed as the always had at Beacon and the only change to Pyrrha's outfit was a red sweater pulled over her armored torso.

"And the three of you are certain you want to come with me?"

"The journey will be perilous and whether or not we find answers at the end is uncertain."

"But we wouldn't be here if we weren't up for it."

Ruby cracked a smile, relieved at the conviction she heard from Ren and Nora. Beside her, the redheaded spartan let out another chuckle.

"Besides, I think Jaune, Yang and Tai would be upset if we let you run off to Haven on your own."

"Let's get started. To Haven!"

"To Haven!"

Snow whirled lightly around the four teens as they began their trek through the forest surrounding the Xiao Long household and the long journey to Haven, Huntsman Academy of the kingdom of Mistral. As alert as even Ren and Pyrrha were, none of them noticed the solitary gaze trained on them as they made their way into the woods. A single blue eye stared out from a frost glazed window, watching the footprints begin to fill up from the flakes lightly falling from the gray sky.

Jaune grunted slightly as he rose to his feet and stretched his arms above his head before crossing the room and picking up a random book from the bookshelf. He had known about Ruby's plan for a while now, having overheard her talking to his team one night as he headed up the stairs to go to bed. While he had been tempted to try to talk them out of their plan to travel across Remnant in search of answers, he knew that one thing that had been bothering the young reaper was the unknown reason as to why Beacon had been attacked. Jaune laid across his bed, eye scanning the pages in front of him but not really reading the words.

It couldn't have been more than a couple minutes before he heard a clattering sound from down the hall, figuring that Taiyang had most likely found a note that Ruby had left for him. He made his way out into the hallway and was nearly bowled over by Taiyang sprinting out from Ruby's room and down the stairs, calling for his daughter's name the entire time. He peeked his head into the room where Ruby, Nora and Pyrrha had stayed, spotting the note from Ruby easily as the red crayon used stood out like a sore thumb. Next to it was a sealed envelope with his name written across the front in green pen and graceful handwriting that clearly belonged to Ren. Picking up the envelope, he returned to his room and sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard. He tore the top of the envelope open before pulling out and unfolding the piece of paper contained within. A tattered and much worn paper fluttered onto his lap from where it had been held in place by the letter. Flipping it over, his eyes widened as he easily recognized the photo that it displayed.

I thought this was lost at Beacon, how did Ren get a hold of it?

He set the picture aside and turned his attention to the letter written in the same flowing cursive as the front of the envelope.

Jaune,

As you may or may not have already known, Ruby received a tip that said that those who may have been responsible for the Fall of Beacon had masqueraded at the school during the second term as students of Haven Academy. She's decided to journey there in search of answers and Pyrrha, Nora and I have made the choice to accompany her. I know this probably feels like we are abandoning you Jaune, but the three of us feel that we could do more good by aiding Ruby in her quest, especially since we couldn't dissuade her, compared to staying with Taiyang for an indeterminate amount of time.

I'm sure you're wondering about the photo that is enclosed along with this letter and how I got a hold of it. Long story short, you ended up leaving it on your bed in the dorm after you rushed out to make it to Amity Colosseum for Pyrrha's match. I'm not sure why I did but I pocketed the picture, planning to give it back to you after we returned to our room that evening. I ended up forgetting it was in my pocket during the chaos of the Fall and only rediscovered it a couple days ago. I hope that it can provide happy memories for you while we're gone.

As much as I would love to write more for this letter, Pyrrha's over one shoulder reminding me that we need to finish packing for the morning and Nora's over the other saying that I've made this long enough. Jaune, I hope that you can regain the conviction and determination you had during our time at Beacon and can rejoin us somewhere down the road. I'll do my best to stay in touch and send letters whenever I can.

With love,

Ren, Nora and Pyrrha.

P.S. Nora left you a present on the back of the letter.

Turning the letter over, Jaune couldn't help but chuckle at the extremely detailed and extremely pink doodle of teams RWBY and JNPR beating up some poor, defenseless Grimm. He folded the letter up and placed it back in the envelope before picking the photo up and looked at it fondly, reminiscing of when it was taken not quite three years ago. His eldest sister, Maple, had just graduated from Haven and they had thrown a party to celebrate that fact in their hometown. Both of his parents were Hunters and the majority of their bedtime stories were kid-friendly accounts of their travels. It had only been natural that they had all wanted to be Hunters when they grew up, regardless of talent or training. The picture featured a scene that had become more difficult and complex as time went on: managing to fit ten Arcs into a single photo. The photo was one of the few things Jaune had taken with him when he left home to attend Beacon and it had served as a means to alleviate any homesickness he had while in Vale.

"Hey."

A soft voice from the door caused him to look up from the photo. Blue met lilac as the two blondes made eye contact across the room and Jaune was reminded of their first conversation after the Fall.

"Oh, hey Yang."


"Knock, knock."

Jaune stood patiently outside Yang's door, a tray of food held in his arms as he waited for a response from the other side of the door. He had offered to bring Yang her supper mainly because he was still uncomfortable around Pyrrha after their fight the day before. He knew he was acting like he did back when Cardin was blackmailing him but he found that he couldn't bring himself to care all that much about it.

"Come in, the door's unlocked."

He pushed the door open with his shoulder before straightening out and making his way across the room to the bed where Yang was seated with her back to the door. She either hadn't heard the door open or didn't care enough to turn around from gazing out the window at the forest surrounding the house. He slowly lowered the tray onto the bed, mindful of the fact that his depth perception had worsened. He pushed the tray towards the center of the bed before making his way around the bed and taking a seat on the end. He must have caught her peripheral vision as she turned her head towards him, lilac eyes widening in shock momentarily at the sight of his blind eye.

"Jaune?"

He paused his action of grabbing one of the pieces of bread from the tray and made eye contact with Yang. He nodded in affirmation before picking up the bread and taking a bite. Her eyes narrowed slightly, frowning at her fellow blonde who appeared to be indulging himself in her meal.

"What happened to you, and why are you eating my supper?"

Jaune swallowed and motioned towards the tray sitting on the bed between them, two bowls of soup and several slices of bread resting on it along with a couple glasses of water.

"Brought mine up as well. As for your other question, I lost my eye in the Fall."

Yang rolled her eyes, grabbing a slice of bread herself before gesturing at Jaune.

"I could have guessed that part, Vomit-Boy. But what happened exactly."

He looked out the window silently for several seconds, before sighing briefly and turning back to the girl next to him.

"I fought someone a lot stronger than me and this was the price I paid."

She grimaced slightly, clearly making the comparison between their situations. An awkward silence filled the room as both blondes focused on eating their food, Yang struggling slightly with her soup. Jaune noticed her fumbling with the spoon, soup wasn't exactly an easy food to eat with one hand especially if it was your non-dominant hand. He reached over and lightly touched her wrist, causing her to pause her actions and give him a questioning look. He moved his hand from her wrist and instead used it to grip the side of the bowl, steadying it so that it was easier for the brawler to eat. Yang accepted the proffered olive branch and began to scoop the contents of the bowl into her mouth.

"Thank you."

The words were so quietly spoken that Jaune wasn't sure if he had imagined them or not. He tilted his head slightly in confusion, noting the lilac eyes that were staring at him.

"Thank you."

This time, he knew that Yang had definitely thanked him. Jaune blinked a couple times before shaking his head, a small smile forming on his face.

"You don't need to thank me for this, Yang. I'm just doing what anybody would do."

She shook her head in a more forceful manner, long hair flowing behind her with the motion.

"It's not... It's not for this, although thank you for holding the bowl still. It's for..."

She paused, looking away for a couple seconds before meeting his gaze once again. Her cheeks flushed slightly, although Jaune wasn't sure as to the reason why.

"It's for yesterday, you comforted Ruby when I couldn't. Thank you for that, Jaune."

"You don't need to thank me for that, Yang. Ruby's like my little sister, I'd do anything for her."


"So you've decided to stick around, Jaune."

Yang's words roused Jaune from his musings, although even more so than that it was her tone that caught his attention. It was almost... accusatory. He blinked a couple times in confusion before giving her his usual grin.

"Well I mean of course, why wouldn't I?"

"Why?"

The word was practically hissed out from between Yang's lips as she stalked across the room towards him, hair flickering and eyes appearing to have a hint of red in them. Jaune was confused, apparently his answer was the wrong one in Yang's book although he wasn't sure why. He needed to diffuse this situation before he got his ass kicked by Yang, one arm gone or not she still had him beat in combat ability.

"What do you mean, Ya-"

"WHY?"

She grabbed the front of his shirt, all but shouting the word into his face. Her hair flared into an inferno and her eyes became blood red. As quickly as her anger had risen, it then died down, her hair losing its spark and her eyes returning to their usual shade of lilac. A sob forced its way past her lips as her chest shook with others that were contained. She bowed her head, partially obscuring her face behind her golden hair but not so much that Jaune couldn't see the tears streaking down her face.

"Why would you stick around with me after everyone else had left me behind? Weiss was taken by her father, Blake ran away, Ruby and your team are on a fool's errand to Haven but you don't owe me anything so why would you stay?"

Jaune's gut twisted. Yang, much like Ruby, had been so emotionally strong and upbeat during their time at Beacon that seeing her break down like this was a bit of a shock. He gently wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug, resting her head in the crook of his neck. He gently stroked her back, ignoring the damp feeling spreading across his shirt.

"Because I know how it feels to be alone, Yang. I know how much it hurts to feel like everyone close to you are far away or that they've abandoned you. I know that feeling and I don't want anyone else to have to feel that."

"What do you mean, Jaune?"

By this point, Yang's tears had subsided and she had shifted slightly so that her head was resting on his chest. Had this type of position happened sometime at Beacon, Jaune would've been ecstatic but now, thoughts like that were the last thing on his mind. One of his hands now simply rested on her hip and the other continued to stroke her hair, which was odd that he was allowed to do so given how protective Yang was of her hair.

"I grew up in a family with a long history of being Huntsmen and Huntresses, my sisters and I were raised with stories of my parents time in their respective Academies as bedtime stories so it was only natural that we all wanted to be like them when we grew up."

He paused momentarily, lost in memories of a happier time before he shook his head slightly and continued talking.

"Unlike my siblings however, I didn't have the same level of natural talent that they all did starting out so I didn't receive much training or even get my Aura unlocked. I ended up going to a normal school while my sisters all went to combat school. Whereas they spent the summers designing, building and training with their weapons, I did odd jobs around my village and eventually got a part-time job. But I never lost the dream of becoming a Huntsman like my parents."

More memories surfaced, these ones far more bitter and melancholy than previously. Jaune let out a long sigh of regret before returning to his story.

"No one could call how I got into Beacon moral, or hell, even legal. I had plenty of Lien saved up from my jobs around the village so I paid for a set of forged transcripts from a combat school in Vacuo. I used those to lie my way into Beacon and I got my letter of acceptance a couple months before the term started. A week after that, I took the rest of my money, left a note on the kitchen counter, took Crocea Mors from where it rested on the wall as well as my dad's old armor and fled into the night like a thief."

His voice grew more and more choked as he went on and tears had started dripping down his cheeks. By this point, he had stopped moving his hands at all and just clutched Yang close to him, as if she was the only tangible thing he had. Yang noticed the change in Jaune's voice and wrapped her arm around his torso in an attempt to give him the same level of comfort he had given her. A couple minutes passed by before Jaune continued speaking in a low voice, barely louder than a whisper.

"Those weeks I spent between leaving home and arriving at Beacon were some of the loneliest and most painful weeks of my life. I had just abandoned the only home I knew and the only people I was close to. I was travelling to an entirely different continent where I knew nothing and there was a good chance I would get to stay at Beacon or even die there. I felt so alone, I had no one to talk to and nobody to spend time with. After growing up with seven sisters, the silence was almost terrifying and I never want anyone to feel as alone as I did back then."

He laughed, not his usual laugh filled with joy and happiness but the type of hollow laugh a criminal might make before being hung from the gallows. A wry, twisted grin spread across his face before he settled back down into a more somber silence.

"God, my family probably thinks I'm dead. Beacon was the only Academy that I could've logically run off to and the last thing the other kingdoms heard of Beacon and Vale was that they were being attacked by Atlas. Now that the CCT is destroyed, I can't even contact them to let them know I'm okay. I put them through so much pain and worry and for what? For me to break my great-grandfather's sword and to lose an eye not a year into my training. I'm a terrible person for what I've done to my family."

Jaune felt the arm around him tighten until it was almost painful. Looking down, he saw that Yang's eyes had gone back to being red as she glared up at him in annoyance.

"You aren't a terrible person Jaune. If you were, you wouldn't have been so friendly at Beacon, you wouldn't have been so selfless and you would've ran away from home without any form of remorse or regret. The fact that you regret running away proves that you aren't a terrible person and I will kick your ass if you say that again."

He let out another laugh, this one closer to his usual self.

"Thanks Yang, I needed that."

"Anytime, Vomit-Boy."


And the feels train keeps going. Maybe it'll stop next chapter or maybe it won't, nobody knows. (Except me)

On a somewhat related note to the chapter, I hope that Volume 5 will have some legitimate Jaune backstory because he's pretty much the only main character we don't have some level of concrete backstory for.

As always, please leave a review or PM me if you have any questions or thoughts to share.

Thank you to everyone who favorited and/or followed and thank you to Fayari for reviewing.

Next chapter:

Physical limitations take a while to get used to.

CRASH!

"Damn!"

A delivery arrives.

"These ones are for the two of you."

And solace is found.

"Well, one time we..."

See you next chapter.