Chapter 5: 'Tis Better to Have Loved and Lost

Disclaimer: Neither Phy or I (Umbra) own anything other than HL and Yee.

The days fly as the routine of school sets in. In Maths, we learn about how angles are important, especially for our longer-ranged weaponry. We write papers on why we chose our weapons in Literature, discuss the Faunus-Human War in History… The usual. When midterms start to loom, though, our professors decide to pile on the projects.

"So, students, one of the most important parts of being a Huntsman or Huntress… Is working together, HAHAHAHA!" Professor Port proceeds to pair students up, starting from the front of the class. As I am sitting at the very corner of the back row, he belatedly realizes that we have an odd amount of students for pairs. I tug at the ends of my bow as Port scans the room for a group that I could join.

"Miss Nikos, would you mind if Miss Baak were to join you and Mr. Arc?"

I heave a sigh of relief as Pyrrha beckons me to move over to them, barely hearing Professor Port announce that we have the last five minutes of class to discuss the paper with our partners. Working with Pyrrha won't be so bad. At least I didn't get put with Cardin.

"For Cardin's sake, that is a good thing; I would have lit him on fire many times had we been paired with him."

I grin to myself. In an alternate universe, I bet you'd have set his ass on fire in the lunchroom when he was pullin' on Velvet's ear.

"I feel as though that did happen; must be wishful thinking."

I set my bookbag on the chair next to Pyrrha. "Thanks, cousin."

"It's no problem, Yee. I knew you wouldn't be comfortable working with anyone aside from Weiss or me."

I blush slightly and try to change the subject. "So, um. What do you want to write about? Professor Port says it has to be about a research paper on a specific breed of Grimm."

"Yeah. Do you have any specific Grimm you want to write about, Jaune?" Pyrrha turns to him. I make an attempt not to glare.

"Try not to light him on fire, little peony."

I won't; that's your job. Remember, he shoved me and tried to hit on Weiss. He's a no-good butt-muncher.

I can feel the disdain and scorn radiating from the glaive strapped to my back. "Think about what you just said."

I huff in indignation. I can't think of any better insults right now okay? Get back to me next week and I'll have a better insult for you.

"You can never come up with good insults. In the two years that I've known you, there was only one good one you came up with."

"Yee?" Pyrrha interrupts my mental conversation with a raised brow. "You okay?"

"Huh? Uh, yeah," I laugh sheepishly. "I was spacing out. What did you say?"

"Jaune said he wanted to write on Nevermore," responds Pyrrha, glancing at Jaune with a gentle expression. Jaune peers over her shoulder at me. "Are you okay with writing on them?"

"Oh, yeah. That's fine." I study Pyrrha's face curiously, distracted by her expression towards Jaune.

"That's great," Pyrrha smiles. With a start, she seems to realize something. "Oh, that's right! I don't know if you two have met before."

I attempt a smile, though it turns out to be more of a grimace. "We've met, I think."

"H-huh. Now that you mention it, you do look familiar…" replies Jaune, studying my face. "Where could we have met before, though?"

I want so desperately to say "you shoved me out of your way to try to hit on Weiss."

"You would sound petty in that scenario. What you should say is, 'I was in the locker room with you and the others before initiation.'"

He probably wouldn't remember me anyway.

"Still worth an attempt, to see if you can make him squirm."

"I, uh, was in the locker room with you and Pyrrha and Weiss. You know, before initiation?" I smile wryly, staring at my knees.

"Oh, wait! You were that girl that I bumped into on accident, right? I've been meaning to apologize to you, but I couldn't remember what you looked like… Sorry about that one." I look up to see Jaune, a despondent expression on his face.

"It, uh… It's okay," I say, a bit stunned. He apologized? But also hit me with the "didn't remember what you looked like." Backhanded compliments?

"I'd take the compliment: this boy is very… socially challenged."

"So, when do you guys want to work on the project? It's due in two weeks," Pyrrha says cheerfully, breaking the uncomfortable silence.

"I guess we could start working on it during the weekend." Jaune suggests.

"Okay," I say as Professor Port calls out that class is dismissed. Pyrrha heads over to him to write down our topic on the assignments sheet.

"Cool, I look forward to working with you," Jaune says with a smile.

I sling my bag over my shoulder and smile back, still hesitant about trusting Jaune. "Yeah, I'll message Pyrrha about when we should meet." As I step out to head to my next class – which is Maths: boring – I consider what I just experienced.

"Jaune seems like he will either do great things in his life or fail miserably at everything he attempts."

If my intuition is correct and Pyrrha likes him, I sure hope he turns out to be the former. Uncle would smite him into hell if he became a failure and Pyrrha brought him home.

"The other grand artifacts would smite him if he was brought into the family."

Well, regardless, it seems like he coats himself in that gross, flirty, playboy façade to hide that he's… atrocious at making friends, like you'd said.

"You actually worded that like I would have." I could feel a hint of pride radiating from the glaive.

I visibly shudder at the thought. Mental note: stop being a douchebag about people or else I'll turn into a crabby old fart like Shifu. I rub the goosebumps that have appeared on my arms.

"Given enough time, everyone gets crabby. If I stay around you any longer, I may get moody and full of angst."

"Hey, I'm edgy, not angsty!" I raise my voice before slapping my hand to my mouth, realizing that I've spoken aloud. A couple of other students in the hall turn and look at me inquisitively. I tug at my bow in embarrassment.

"I once knew a little bird who was nothing like you."

A little bird…? I make a point to think rather than speak.

"Yes, she was rather 'edgy' as well, but her boyfriend was quite the charmer."

Your point being…? I slip into the back of the classroom and set down my bag at the edge of the lecture desk.

"She was very hidden in the background but was a spitfire when provoked. That is, if people ever got to her; her lover was rather adept at killing them before it got to that stage."

What does this, uh, bird have to do with me being edgy?

"If someone ever called her cute, she had an edge to show them. The fact that it was her knife blade had little to do with it."

That… didn't at all answer my question, Seefu.

"You are the epitome of dainty."

I put my hand over my heart, gasping loudly. You're saying I'm not edgy!

"That is exactly what I am saying."

Before I can respond, the Maths professor calls for attention to start her lecture and I can only grumble about mean dragons as I open my notebook.

"Hey, Yee," Weiss calls through the open door of my room. I look up to see her and the rest of her team peering over her shoulder at me. "We're going to the docks to greet the new arrivals for the Vytal Festival. Want to come along?"

"Aw, I would, but Pyrrha and I have to go home to pick some stuff up. I think Pyrrha needed something from her parents and Hong-Long wants me to read some stuffy old books he wrote with his infinite amounts of wisdom." I roll my eyes and pick up my book bag. "Sorry. Let me know how it goes?"

"It's fine. Tell Hong-Long that if he bullies you again, we'll have words." Weiss waves a hand at me as she and her team continue down the hall.

"Well, I would love to give her an earful right now, but that would be awkward, wouldn't it?"

I'm afraid to ask what kind of earful you have to say to her. I sling the bag over my shoulder and lock the door behind me.

"Nothing too serious. Just enough to let her know I am always around in some form."

She doesn't know you well enough to where she'd ever understand that. She'd just think you're creepy. Though I guess she wouldn't be wrong.

"You can say whatever you would like, but it doesn't change the fact that we are stuck together until either you die or my seals break."

I sigh, knocking on JNPR's door. Somebody either kill me or break these seals… Get this leech off me!

"I wouldn't mind passing on, you know: 2422 years has given me enough hatred for this world."

Unable to think of a reply, I stay silent until Pyrrha opens the door. "Hey, sorry!" she sputters. I peek around her and see her bag hastily packed on her bed. "I lost track of time because I was on the roof with Jaune and —"

I hold my hand up to stop her rambling. "I don't really need to know what you were doing with your crush as long as you stay safe." Pyrrha's face flushes a deep red.

"If she brings weak genes into the family, —."

"W-We were practicing combat!" She blurts, evidently flustered. I fail miserably at hiding the grin on my face.

"I just said 'as long as you stay safe,' cousin. Combat training is dangerous."

"You are evil… Good. You are learning."

Pent up aggression 'cause of somebody. Thanks, though: I do learn from the best. I beckon for Pyrrha to get her bag. "C'mon, let's get going."

"R-right," she says, still flustered. She picks up the bag and we head to the Bullhead in a comfortable silence. As we step into it, Pyrrha speaks up again.

"I think I am going to try to read ahead for Literature," she says, holding up Linden Hills by Gloria Naylor.

"Oh yeah. I have to read that at some point too: thanks for reminding me."

"You know what you should read? Sun Tzu's The Art of War."

I sit down on the bench a couple of seats away. That sounds even less interesting than your books.

"Sun Tzu is an excellent military strategist. It would be wise of you to at least take a cursory glance at some of it."

I groan and turn to look out the window. As much as I hated the training to become a family historian, sometimes I wish I hadn't tripped during the Tsaakyunglai. Wouldn't have to study so hard to be a fighter that we both know I'm not.

"It is hard to say what you will turn into: your soul is malleable. I am interested in what it will change into."

I rest my chin on my hand, staring at the manor that we approach. I bet you Kai Shun is still seething. I would be, if I were him.

"It doesn't matter how mad he is. I still wouldn't have picked him if he came to claim me."

I think it would have been better for him if I had purposefully done it. At least, then, he would have a good reason to hate me.

"I have no understanding of how he can still hold a grudge. I mean, it happened two years ago."

He trained his whole life to be worthy of you. Have some empathy. Or at least some sympathy.

"He still wasn't worthy. If you hadn't taken me, he would have been put to the flame."

The Bullhead slowly screeches to a stop and Pyrrha and I stand. That's the worst of it. He trained all that time and still wouldn't have been worthy, and I did nothing but read dusty old books by three thousand year old men. Feels unfair that I'm the one who "gets to" fight.

"What is easier to mold: a piece of clay or a bar of iron?"

Waving goodbye to Pyrrha, I trudge down the stairs to the library. I mean, we both know I'm not that stupid What's your point?

"Your brother was taught how to fight in a sheltered environment. If I were to try and teach him how to fight, he would approach it from a martial standpoint. With you, I can teach you how to fight and you will be able to adapt to a variety of situations on the fly because you weren't drilled in any way, shape, or form."

I stop at the end of the staircase. A large hall stretches out before me, and at the end stand a giant set of double doors. The burnt umber doors – in name only – are decorated by gold leaf and pearlescent marbled gladioluses. I carefully lift the appropriately designed longitudinal grooved leaf knocker and let go, the satisfactory thud echoing through the hall.

I meet back up with Pyrrha after a couple of hours. The ride back to Beacon is quiet and uneventful, and Pyrrha reminds me to head over to JNPR's room after dinner to work on the Literature essay. After a brisk shower, I head to the cafeteria near the end of the open hours. I scan the room, hoping to see Weiss and catch up on how her visit to the docks was, but dejectedly resign to a small table by a window.

"Why do you care so much about Weiss's day?"

The way you ask that makes it sound like you've never loved someone. Granted, nobody would love a crabby old fart like you, huh.

"...I did love someone at one point, but that love was ripped away from me. Death has a funny way of ending commitments."

I… Oh. I stare down at my dinner, not really seeing it. Sorry.

"Don't be. I got to serve her in the best way possible. One can truly say they love someone when they are willing to lay down their life for the other and not regret their decision."

Shifu… You're surprisingly romantic.

"Call it my old age, but yes: love does make us do stupid things from time to time. Like burning down an entire village."

I feel like that is a story that I will need to hear at some point.

"There were fireworks. Lots and lots of fireworks." An unusually eager tone sets in Hong-Long's voice and I grin.

As much as I'd like to hear it, Pyrrha and Jaune are waiting for me. While I don't like being their thirdwheel, I would rather get this essay over and done with. So, tell me later?

"Of course, little peony."

I scarf down the rest of my dinner, put my dishes on the conveyor belt for the dishwasher, and head for my cousin's room.

Tsaakyunglai [I forget: it's something like "the choosing ceremony" in Cantonese] - the ceremony in which Yuen-Yee trips and accidentally grabs the glaive containing Hong-Long's spirit. The glaive was supposed to be handed down to her brother Kai Shun, but Hong-Long (apparently) liked Yuen-Yee better and thus chose her by wrapping the red silk ribbon around her waist rather than her brother's.

Phy: Sorry this chapter was released so late! We wanted to write more because we missed a release date.

This is unrelated to the chapter, but as much as I love RWBY, there are so many continuity errors. In the scene where Jaune is fighting Cardin, when he gets knee'd in the nuts, he drops his sword. The next frame, he's holding his sword again, but then loses it once more after it switches to Cardin raising his mace – which, if paused at the right time, looks like it's made of paper. Not to mention the awkward "fondling" of Velvet's ear (the way they animated Cardin pulling her ear is just… not how physics works). I did like the part where, in "Jaundice Part 2," Cardin is seen sitting in the window right below Pyrrha and Jaune, giving him an easy segue into the scene.

I had to talk to my cousin for help with coming up with the names of things. It was pretty funny because I initially just wanted to have a text conversation with him since I was in a call with Umbra to work on the story, but, of course, my cousin called me, so I was in a weird predicament to where I was talking to my cousin with Umbra just listening to my end of the conversation. Apparently he was very lost and it was hilarious.

Since we finished this chapter so late (it's 12:40 AM here) as well as releasing during our finals week, our betas were super busy and unable to proofread it. SO I hope we didn't disappoint with our writing!

Umbra: We both hope you enjoy reading this chapter. If you did, we would love if you would leave a comment explaining what you liked so we can try to get more of it into the story. If you didn't, please make sure to leave a comment explaining why.

Phy: Constructive criticism, please! We welcome criticism, but if it's just pointless hate, we'll delete it.