Natural Beauty
Twelve hours. It had been twelve hours since Miltia was admitted to the hospital and Jaune hadn't left her side since. Sure, Junior and Melanie told him to get some rest and he'd gotten a few messages from his team asking where he was.
But Jaune wouldn't dare leave her side, he couldn't. It was his fault that Miltia was where she was and Jaune would be damned if he wouldn't be there to apologize when she woke up. He didn't care if he was skipping school, he didn't care if he was worrying his friends. The only thing Jaune could care about anymore was Miltia.
Nothing more and nothing less. "Come on, Miltia. Wake up so I can say I'm sorry already…" He knew she couldn't hear him, but Jaune still spoke to her as if she were talking back. The silence was always deafening.
"You really should get some sleep." Melanie said from the door way as she watched Jaune with pity. Jaune always wanted the girl to acknowledge him with an emotion that wasn't hatred, but pity made him realize you never really know how much you miss something until it's gone.
"Not yet…" Jaune replied as he continued to watch Miltia sleep. Melanie sighed. "Then give me your Scroll, I know you haven't told anyone where you are. The least you can do is let your parents know."
Jaune chuckled. It was slow and dry and humourless, but it was something. "My parents don't live in Vale; you'll have to call my team." Melanie was fairly confused by this. "Team?" She asked as she scrolled through his Scroll.
"I never told you? I'm attending Beacon Academy; I'm the leader of a team there." Melanie wasn't sure what shocked her more, the fact that the 'loser' was the leader of a team of warriors, or how nonchalant he was about it.
"I… see." She said slowly as she found three contacts prefaced with the letters JNPR. "Your team is called… JNPR?" She asked as she opened up the message screen for 'Pyrrha.' Jaune nodded slowly as Melanie looked through the two dozen messages left from the girl, all of which asking where he was and what had happened.
"Nice name." She replied as she informed the girl of Jaune's whereabouts and the happenstance that lead to his placement there. Afterwards, she returned the Scroll to its rightful owner and left the room. Jaune still just continued to watch Miltia sleep.
It wasn't only out of guilt though. Jaune felt nothing but remorse for what happened and that caused him to only stare at the girl he failed. But there was another reason he was staring. Jaune was transfixed by her beauty.
When the paramedics brought her in, they wiped Miltia's face clean and removed all of her makeup. Jaune hadn't turned away from her since. She looked stunning without the makeup on; her natural beauty outdid any and all professional artists.
Jaune knew without a doubt that the twins would look a lot less similar when they had their makeup off, who was more beautiful, Jaune didn't know. But that didn't matter much to him anyway, at least not at the moment.
All that mattered was her forgiveness, something he wasn't even sure he would be able to get. Junior blamed himself for what happened as well, much to Jaune's chagrin, so he still had a job at the club. Melanie was sure Miltia would forgive him, so she did as well.
It was just the person who didn't deserve any pain that Jaune needed forgiveness from, the one person that wasn't even capable of forgiveness at the moment. But Jaune would wait as long as it took for her to wake up and see him.
The club had some major damage done to it during the fight, so it would need some renovations. Some new henchmen too, so Jaune wouldn't need to go to work for the next few days or so. Junior insisted on paying him for the day he worked and as much as Jaune declined, the man wouldn't take no for an answer.
So Jaune waited, he waited for Miltia to wake up and he waited for the moment he could relieve his tired mind of all the guilt that was currently pent up. He wasn't sure what he'd say to her beyond the words 'I'm sorry.' But Jaune was certain that improvisation is one of his strong points, so long as he called her Miltia, things should be good.
"Nobody's getting hurt, huh?" Weiss asked her team after JNPR informed them of Jaune's whereabouts and his current status.
'Dead to the world.'
"How was I supposed to know his boss had enemies?" Ruby replied as she, Blake, Yang and Weiss all sat in their dorm room thinking over Jaune's current predicament. Pyrrha had told them everything during lunch and the girls couldn't focus on class at all for the rest of the day.
It was only when the school day had ended had they finally began to even speak. "I wonder when he'll be back…" Yang thought aloud as the room remained silent. "Soon. A bullet wound can obviously be dangerous, but a shot to the stomach isn't that fatal. His friend should be up in no time, then I'm sure he'll be on the first ship back here." Blake replied as she relayed her knowledge on human anatomy.
It was quite extensive. "I knew something like this would happen, I knew somebody would be hurt there." Weiss said softly, almost as if she were talking to herself. Yang shook her head. "It's just a club, Weiss. Most of them aren't dangerous at all, and even the ones that are really don't do much." Weiss gave Yang a harsh glare.
"Should I be curious as to how you know so much about these sorts of things?" She asked as Yang looked back at her with a bored expression on her face. "I've been to a few clubs in my day." She said as she thought back to the days of her youth. "Sometimes for fun, other times for information."
Blake seemed confused by this. "Information?" She asked as Yang's eyes subconsciously shifted to Ruby and thoughts of Yang's mother resurface. "You don't want to know… In any case, something like this shouldn't have happened and I'm sure it won't happen again."
Weiss scoffed. "Like you could possibly know that." Yang grinned at this and turned her head to face Weiss. "I'm sorry, how many clubs have you been to?" She asked as Weiss blushed and looked away with a scowl. "Oh, whatever…"
One point for Yang.
"That's why Jaune wasn't in class today, Professor Ozpin and I'm afraid we don't know when he'll be back." Pyrrha said as she stood in the Headmasters office with Ren and Nora. Ozpin merely took a sip from his cup.
"I understand completely, these things happen. I'll be sure to notify the other teachers and let them know of your leader's predicament. You are excused." Pyrrha nodded her head in thanks and left the office with the rest of her team. Ozpin just took another sip.
"Mmm, good hot chocolate today…"
As the remaining members of team JNPR left the office and began the long wait in the elevator to get back to ground level, a looming silence hung over them. It wasn't broken until they awkwardly crossed the entirety of the academy and made it back to the dorms and into their own room.
They all sighed as they simultaneously flopped onto their beds. "Two dozen messages and the only reply I get is from someone else…" Pyrrha muttered through her pillow as she lay on her stomach. "I can only wonder what he's going through." Nora replied as she sat up and looked to Ren for support.
In some way he managed to give it. "I suppose we could go to the hospital and check up on him, see how things are going." Nora and Pyrrha smiled at the thought. "That's not a bad idea, we should support our leader through the tough times he's having." Pyrrha declared with a grin.
Nora thrust her arm into the air with a loud 'YEAH!' and began to bounce on her bed and come up with ideas. "Should we bring a gift? The message said that Jaune's friend is a 'she' so we should bring something that girls like. Like PANCAKES! Oh my Gods, Ren, we need you to make a giant batch right now, then make another one so we can give it to Jaune's friend."
Ren wasn't sure if he was actually happy that Nora was back in a good mood again, the silence was so nice… "Nora, we aren't going to give Jaune's lady friend a batch of pancakes, she just got shot in the stomach. Flowers, on the other hand…" Nora was less excited by the prospect of vegetation than she was when it came to food, so she somehow managed to quiet down for a moment.
'Works every time.' Ren thought to himself as Pyrrha decided to start talking. "We should stop by the flower store on our way into Vale, then pick up something she'd like. Whatever that may be." Ren nodded and Nora frowned, but nodded as well.
"It's settled then. We'll head into Vale and visit Jaune and his friend at the hospital."
"Junior, how did this happen?" Melanie asked as Junior paced back and forth in his office, one of the only parts of the building that wasn't demolished by Emerald and Mercury. "It was Cinder; she sent them after the Kid." Junior said, almost muttered, as he continued to pace.
"Why? Why would Jaune be important to someone like her?" Junior stopped abruptly and looked at the girl in white and sighed. "He may not know it, but Jaune and I have a history in some way. 'History' wouldn't be the best word and I never actually met him before he came in here, but he and I have a connection."
He began pacing again. "In fact, I'm certain he doesn't know it. But it's probably better that way…" Melanie was fairly confused by this, but it definitely answered a question that had been building up for a while. "Is that why you hired him with no hesitation?" Junior nodded.
"Yeah… Damnit, it's just not fair that Miltia had to get hurt for my screw up." Melanie shook her head slowly and put her hand on Junior's back. "She'll understand. You know her; she'd probably forgive the scum that shot her if she apologized."
Junior laughed, it was a slow, dry and humourless laugh. "Yeah, that's her alright." The man gave a long sigh. "I hope Jaune can take it easy after she wakes up, things have been moving way too quickly and we definitely need to slow down. It'll take a bit for this placed to get fixed up anyway, so he should be able to just relax at school."
Melanie nodded. "If he doesn't decide to seek vengeance himself." Junior laughed again. "Yeah, he took that 'family' thing pretty seriously." Melanie laughed as well. "Yeah, he looked like such a loser when he said that." She smiled softly at the memory.
"Oh yeah, speaking of school. Did you know that he goes to Beacon? He's even the leader of his own team." Junior perked up at this. "Hah, not a big surprise." Melanie was very confused by this. "What do you mean by that?" She asked as she gave Junior an odd look.
Junior just shook his head. "It's not important. Come on, we should go check on him, he's probably starved himself by now." He left the office and made his way to the front door with Melanie right on his heels.
"I wonder if I could leave for just two minutes to grab a sandwich…" Jaune thought aloud as he eyed the door, calculating the time it would take to reach the cafeteria and get back. "There's no way she'd be awake by then…" He continued as his stomach growled softly.
"I wouldn't be too sure of that." A weak voice replied as Jaune whipped his head back to look at Miltia smiling at him softly. Jaune immediately grabbed her hand. "Miltia, I'm so sorry that happened. It was all my fault, I shouldn't have been so flimsy with my blocking and I-"
"Jaune." Miltia said as she looked at Jaune with shock written on her face. "Y-yes?" Jaune replied as he closed one eye and turned his head, barely looking at her. "Did… did you just call me Miltia?" She asked with pure awe in her voice as she looked Jaune up and down.
She then put a hand against his forehead and leaned in close. "Are you feeling alright? You're not sick are you?" She looked into his eyes and blushed after realizing how close they were. Jaune moved back a bit after noticing it too. "What do you mean? How can you ask if I'm okay after you took a bullet?"
Miltia seemed slightly confused by this. "Uhm, because I'm worried about you?" She even tilted her head to the side, Jaune just shook his. "So, you're not angry at me? You don't blame me for what happened?" Miltia's head tilted even further.
"Why would I possibly blame you?" She asked as Jaune's eyes slightly watered. "Because they were there for me. If we never met you wouldn't be in this position right now and you-"
"Jaune." Miltia said with a small smile on her face. "If we never met I wouldn't be able to do this." Jaune's head tilted this time, his eyes still watering. "Do wha-" Miltia interrupted him by leaning her head over his shoulder and wrapping her arms behind his back.
"This."
Despite Jaune's positive flabbergasm, he wrapped his arms behind her back and smiled. "You're too good to me…" He whispered softly as time slowed down and let Jaune enjoy the small moment. Sadly, as always, it ended far too soon.
"Wow, Jaune. You really are a LadyKiller…" A voice said from the doorway and caused Miltia and Jaune to shoot back to their original seating. After looking at who spoke, Jaune's jaw dropped when he realized it was Ren. He then looked next to the man and saw the rest of his team standing next to him; Melanie and Junior were behind the group as well.
"Uhh, it's not what it looks like?" Jaune both said and asked as his friends walked into the room. Pyrrha laughed at the comment as she placed a bouquet of flowers on the bedside table, Chrysanthemums. "Somehow I doubt that, Jaune. Still, it's good to know that your 'friend' is alive and well."
She turned to Miltia who lay in the bed, blushing. "My name is Pyrrha Nikos; I'm a member of Jaune's team." Miltia's confusion was quite a surprise to the group. "His team?" She asked as she looked at the other two members of Jaune's posse.
"Wait…" She slowly drawled out as she looked at Pyrrha with painstaking detail. "You're the Pyrrha Nikos?! The four-time champion of the Mistral regional tournament?!" Pyrrha blushed slightly at the attention. "It's no big deal…" Miltia's shock was put aside for a moment as Nora spoke up.
"Jaune, you did tell your friends about us, didn't you?" Jaune's nervous chuckle was all the reply they needed. "Jaune! I'm hurt, how could you not tell your new friends about your team? The people that have your back?"
Jaune grew uneasy at this. "I-I just forgot, okay? It never came up in conversation." Ren shook his head slowly. "I don't think so; I think you just don't care about us." Jaune paled immediately. "Guys… That's not how it is…"
Pyrrha scowled at the nervous blonde. "I can't believe I thought we were friends…" The poor boy was on the verge of tears when Nora finally snickered. The rest of the group followed and soon everyone was laughing at Jaune's anguish.
"Oh come on!" Jaune yelled at the group as they erupted into a roar of laughter and giggles. Even Melanie and Junior joined in. "You guys are jerks…" Pyrrha's laughter soon died down into small giggles as she spoke their apology. "Sorry Jaune, that was just too good to pass up."
Jaune rolled his eyes as he turned to Miltia, who also lay clutching her stomach to ease the pain of laughter. "Miltia, my team. Team, Miltia." Everyone said their hello's as Miltia turned to Jaune. "I can't believe you're going to a school like Beacon, you're a leader no less!"
Jaune turned his head and stuck his nose high into the air. "Hey, I may look weak and pathetic. But the eyes can oft deceive…" Miltia nodded in agreement. "They certainly can! To think a little guy like you was chosen over a champion. I mean, I knew you'd be good in a fight, but not that good."
Jaune's smile turned awkward. "Alright, I get the point. I'm better than I look." Miltia's shock didn't die down. "Even then I always thought you'd lose in a fight pretty quickly!" Jaune's eyes turned downcast. "Y-you can stop any time now…"
"I mean, I thought you'd go down like a brick against any Grimm, or even a normal human…" Jaune's was back to the verge of tears. "You're hurting my feelings." Miltia finally let up when she noticed his solemn expression. "Hey, are you alright?"
Jaune's team laughed at the two when all Jaune could do was sigh. Junior was happy to see Jaune out of his depressive rut and Miltia back on her feet. All of team JNPR was glad to have their leader back and Miltia was just glad to be alive.
But Melanie wasn't quite as happy as everyone else. She didn't know why, but when she saw the loser and her sister hugging, Melanie felt an odd sensation in her chest. After much deliberation in her head, and noticing that she was upset with Miltia and not Jaune, Melanie soon realized what the problem was, and it terrified her.
Melanie was jealous of her sister…
Bit on the short side, I know. But the next one should be longer.
