Warning. I advise tissues and blankets for anyone reading this chapter as I've been a cruel motherfucker.
That is all.
Enjoy.
Chapter 10
A match to the bonfire
Waking up that morning was not a fun thing to do for Jaune. It wasn't just because the sun had chosen to shine right in his eyes that morning. Neither was it the intense knowledge that he really didn't want to have to face yet another Monday. It wasn't even the fact that he could hear the exited giggles and chewing of Nora who was already awake and demolishing the rest of the 'celebration' pancakes, she'd had ren make last night in celebration of him attacking Cardin. Frankly that was one thing Jaune would have loved to forget. He didn't like Cardin by any means. The guy was a bully and jerk who took personal pleasure out of making people miserable. He especially loved to attack the Faunus students, apparently his ancestor had fought and died during the human-Faunus wars. That didn't give him any right to attack people though, in fact it made him worse as he decided to take it out those who weren't even alive during the war. But then again, who was Jaune to condemn his actions when he himself had attacked Cardin viscously and without mercy when he could have simply gotten a member of staff instead. Jaune just wanted to forget it all.
There was one thing that he wanted to forget more though. It was also the reason that he wasn't looking forward to getting up.
Weiss Schnee. Or rather the thought of having the possibility to run into her today. The image of Weiss standing in her room last night still made him wince internally.
Looking so sad and broken with obvious tears hidden in her dull eyes. She'd looked so frail, as if his touch would shatter her. But when he'd stared at her in disbelief, she'd had stared back. Her eyes wide and full of emotions she had been doing her best to hide.
The beat had grown rapid and strong as he'd stared at her. Smashing and crashing and thundering against the walls of the room they were encased by. Every time he'd looked at her slightly reddened eyes. Every time he'd took note of how much her small and delicate hands were shaking. Every. Damn. Time. He'd seen her lips quiver as she'd clearly struggled to ask him a seemingly impossible question, the words laying just on the tip of her tongue yet unable to get loose of the pale red bars that refused to open. Every time he'd seen these things the thrum of the song got louder and louder and loudertill it hurt just to be near her while she was in such a state.
He hadn't even realised his hand was raising up towards her, reaching out to take hold of the sad girl before him. Was it still so instinctual to try and make all her worries go away, for him? To want to make her smile and show her proud nature once again? Apparently so.
Yet he stopped his arms movements before they could complete their reach their destination.
Who was he to try and comfort her as he about to try and do? She clearly didn't want to be around him. He knew all he ever did was make her angry and upset. That was all he'd ever managed to do despite his best efforts. The way she'd scoffed at him when he'd offer her, flowers. Berate him when he tried to talk to her and make her laugh. The utter disgust in her eyes as she'd stared at him from above as he kneeled in front of her.
The beat grew quite dark and quiet as he lowered his arm, lowering his eyes to the floor and entering his room without a word. Followed by a silent Pyrrha who closed the door behind them.
He'd stood just in front of the door for a little while, earning nervous looks from Nora and Ren.
"Jaune?" Ren had asked with a surprising amount of emotion in his usually stoic voice. "Are you okay?"
"C'mon, Jauney. Talk to us" Nora had smiled, her nature turning serious and gentle as she looked at him.
"Heh…. No, I'm not okay. But I will be" he smiled weakly back at them all, knowing it was now or never. "Listen guys, I need to speak to you about something very important. So, I need you both, especially you Nora, to promise what I'm about to say will never leave this room, okay?" He'd asked, looking at his team for their agreement.
Nora had nodded instantly. "Anything you want kept secret from our enemies, stays secret!"
Ren had a look of confusion cross his face for the briefest of moments before his calm face returned and he let a small smile grace his features. "Of course, Jaune"
Letting out a rather shaky sigh of relief, Jaune had tried to put into words just what he was about to say. It had been to tender and strong hand of Pyrrha being placed on his shoulder with a smile from the girl herself that had helped Jaune to get the mess of thoughts in his head under control.
Then he explained it all to them. His faked transcripts, his lying to them all about his abilities and that he'd had any form of training besides his father attempting to show him swordsmanship before giving up after jaune made no progress what so ever.
He had honestly expected to get thrown out the nearest window by an angry Nora, despite Pyrrha being confident that he was going to be fine and that they would understand. Instead he had seen an amused looking Ren and a deadpan look from Nora.
"If you think I didn't notice that you were… less gifted in the art of combat and being a huntsman in general, then you aren't giving me enough credit. I was aware that something was off about your attendance here Jaune. But I knew you would tell us in time, so I didn't ask you outright. It doesn't change that you are our leader Jaune. This team needs you and frankly, I doubt Nora will let you get away at this point" Ren had smiled, enjoying his little joke as had the rest of the team who laughed quietly.
"Afraid he's right, Jauney! You know too much to let you get away now!" The wild ginger girl had said in an imperious voice. "If you were to leave, who would make chef Ren cook me pancakes when he thinks that I've had enough, I've never had enough by the way. Long story short though Jaune. We don't care how you got in. All that we care about is that you're our leader and our friend. That's all that matters!" she'd the proceeded to pull the blonde knight into a bear hug, only letting go when Ren had pointed out that Jaune was going blue.
After that, things had gotten a little emotional and happy as they talked it all out and Jaune had allowed himself to briefly forget about the scene he'd just witnessed outside his door.
Unfortunately, as his team all got ready for bed and slowly drifted off to sleep, Jaune was left alone again with his thoughts.
As he'd lay in bed that night, a singular thought ran through his mind. One that made him think back to what he'd admitted when he'd spoken to Coco and Velvet. He was angry. He was angry at Weiss for being so nasty and cruel to him. it was the realisation of this that prompted a thought that made him angry at himself for even thinking. Yet he did.
Who was she to deserve his worry?
He had fallen asleep at this thought, his brain deciding it didn't want to him to continue to think on it any longer. What he seen though, as his eyes slowly drifted to sleep, was the faint glow of a scroll.
Last nights' thoughts were still prevalent in his mind as he stared vacantly at the ceiling. He had to push these aside though, no matter what Coco and velvet had said, his team came first and foremost. Thinking about such things would only cause more problems for them. So he had to put on a brave face for them.
Attempting to force his body to move so that he could get his day started, Jaune turned his head to the side to find the face of the munching Nora staring back at him. Her seemingly perpetually happy face, less than a hair's breadth from his own.
"AH!" Jaune yelled, flying out of his bed in a panic, hitting the floor with a decisive thump and a groan of pain from the startled knight.
"Morning, Fearless Leader!" came her cheery voice, her one hand full of pancake while the other returning her scroll to her jacket pocket. "Ready to face the day of excitement and conquest ahead of us!? We, your valiant warriors, will stop at nothing to crush any man or woman who dares question your place at our noble school!"
"Nora. It's a little early to be getting this loud" came the quiet and well-spoken voice of the tired Lie Ren.
Nora's sudden outburst and the resulting yelling from both her and her the boy she'd just scared half to death, had unfortunately awoken the remainder of her team.
Ren sat up from his corpse like pose, his body held straight and still as had slept, gingerly opening his eyes with just a hint of worry that Nora was on another sugar rush. He was thankful to a major degree to find it was simply Nora being Nora. Though he assumed from the yell of Jaune he'd heard, that he owed their leader an apology on behalf of
Pyrrha on the other hand, seemed to awaken like a princess, her hair, face and general appearance making it seem she had been up and gotten ready long before anyone else had even arisen. She made a gentle stretch and opened her eyes to scan the suddenly very loud room.
"Good morning everyone" she said in a slightly tired, yet still cheerful voice before looking over to find Jaune's bed mysteriously empty. "Nora? Would you happen to know where Jaune is?"
Before the berserker of team JNPR could reply, the pale hand of Jaune shot up from the side of his bed. Giving a thumbs up the general direction of Pyrrha.
"Oh. Good… morning, Jaune? Why are you on the floor?" she enquired, worried he may have had a nightmare or something.
"Scary ginger monsters appearing beside my bed" he called out sarcastically, earning a more than shocked look from Nora.
"You think I'm scary!? Aaawww, you'll make me blush, Fearless Leader!" she grinned, deciding to haul said leader to his feet. Resulting in Jaune nearly going flying into the nearest wall.
"Thanks, Nora" he groaned, attempting to put his arm back into socket. He looked around and saw that Nora was already dressed and ready for the day surprisingly. Normally it was a challenge for even Ren to get her to wake up before it was absolutely, necessary. Ren and Pyrrha were still waking up and would likely still be in bed for a few more minutes. Taking this as his cue, Jaune made his move. "I'm gonna hit the shower, okay?" he called, already making his way towards said shower.
He heard a chorus of 'okay' and 'sure' as he entered the bathroom.
Not exactly looking forward to the day ahead of him for multiple reasons.
If he knew what was going to occur that afternoon, he would have never left that bathroom.
Miss Schnee sat at her desk next to her team with a small smile upon her face. Such was allowed to happen in her current situation. A paper she had completed a few weeks ago had gotten full marks and had landed her squarely at the top of the class, along with the praise of Doctor Oobleck and looks she received from the rest of the class, meant she allowed herself to show this small display of emotion. Father would be pleased, she had done her duty to the company and her family.
After the events of last night, she had decided to take a nice walk to clear her head. All that bother to Miss Rose and Miss Belladonna about being in emotional distress must have simply been her getting overworked. That was the conclusion Miss Schnee came to as she walked the grounds of Beacon. She was not upset about the events that had occurred last night or the nights before. What would she have to be upset about?
Why didn't he speak to me?
It wasn't like she was opposed to the idea of not speaking to him. it made perfect sense. They caused constant strife for one another and he had evidently realised that and had come up with a rather intelligent idea. They would not speak to each other. They would avoid each other and simply pretend the other didn't exist. It was perfect. Miss Schnee would not have to deal with him constantly attempting to woo her anymore, which showed no personal gain for the company or the family despite his family's status at any rate. What use would her father or company have for a slightly well-off family of huntsman who didn't even own a business of their own or have experience working for one? None.
Why did he just turn away when I clearly wanted to speak to him?
He on the other hand would be able to move on with his life and find some other girl to 'love'. Apparently, she brought him pain to be near and so her not being near him was a good thing. So, in hindsight and from a practical point of view, they had done the right thing. Him being there last night had been a minor slip up in their agreement. One which he had quickly rectified by going into his room and leaving Miss Schnee alone. Something she was happy about to be sure.
Didn't he care that I was in pain? He always seemed to care so much…
Miss Schnee felt a small thump in her chest again. it was odd. It had been occurring whenever she thought of him since last night. It was no matter though. Such things didn't matter to an heiress of her calibre.
With her smile from earlier, Miss Schnee stood with the rest of class as the bell rung to symbolize the time to head to the next lesson which was a combat orientated one that Miss Schnee was glad to attend. She hadn't had the chance to use her combat abilities for a while and her tutors back in Atlas would be oh so disappointed if her skills began to lax.
The rest of her team seemed to hold the same excitement which was a welcome change from them constantly asking if she was alright, seeming to think something was wrong with her, which it certainly wasn't. The only oddity she saw was Miss Xiao Long who seemed to be taking constant and fleeting glances at Miss Schnee whenever she thought she wasn't looking. It was a rather odd thing alone, but the smirk that the girl couldn't seem to hide made it even more so. Perhaps Miss Xiao Long sought to fight her today? It would make for an interesting fight. Miss Schnee's speed and grace against Miss Xiao Long's brute strength and durability.
If Miss Schnee were to beat her, it would be a success for her. To beat a fighter of the calibre of Miss Xiao Long would ascend her to the tops of the combat classes, alongside Miss Nikos of course, as well as the regular classes. That would certainly impress father and sister.
As she rose to leave, Miss Schnee spotted a familiar face amongst the crowd that made that odd rhythmic thump return.
He was busy talking to his team as he too made to leave for their next class. As he moved, his head turned to the right angle to spot Miss Schnee sparing a glance at him.
Please, don't ignore me again. Please don't… look so upset to see me
Upon viewing Miss Schnee, his eyes immediately diverted from her and he returned to his conversation as if nothing had happened. It was odd, the thumping hadn't stopped yet had taken a different tune. It seemed to be slightly painful to Miss Schnee as she watched him walk away with his friends.
Do you really hate me that much? Do I mean nothing to you anymore?
Miss Schnee took no heed of the incident and moved on. Another slip up that he had resolved yet again. Miss Schnee was rather impressed by how well he was doing in keeping to his part of the deal.
"So, Weiss" Miss Xiao Long said, turning around to talk not her while keeping her walking up by going backwards. "You look pretty… different today, you doing okay?" she asked, the odd smile on her face never leaving.
"Of course," Miss Schnee smiled, confused yet again as to why her team insisted upon asking about her well-being. "I am perfectly fine as always Yang, I am simply happy with my scores on the test and the fact that we will soon be able to test out our combat skills yet again" Miss Schnee replied with a calm and practiced smile.
"Good, good" Miss Xiao Long replied, turning back around to the confused looks of the other half of the team. "Just checking, is all"
The rest of the walk to the arena was in comfortable silence in Miss Schnee's opinion. Though her partners constant fidgeting and not at all concealed glances said the opposite. Miss Schnee felt no need to ask her though, it would do her no good to go prying into her leaders' personal quirks or the such.
Finally arriving at the arena, they were greeted by an annoyed and rather tired looking Miss Goodwitch who simply nodded her head as her class greeted her. Her emerald eyes scanning the room as she stared at the room.
Miss Schnee felt respect and admiration for the combat teacher. She was a powerful and high-class woman, who carried herself with all the pride and dignity of a queen. Only a fool would not respect someone like Miss Goodwitch and Miss Schnee was no fool.
"First up" Miss Goodwitch said in her imperious voice. "Yang Xiao Long vs Carmine Torrez, prepare yourselves and meet in the arena in five minutes"
"Hell yeah!" Miss Xiao Long grinned, punching her fists together in joy. "Wish me luck, Blakey" she smiled, leaving Miss Belladonna with a rather odd look on her face.
Miss Schnee was not one to agree with the behaviour of Miss Xiao Long, but what would her interfering or attempting to help her team member get her in the end? Nothing but embarrassment and regret. So frankly she saw no point in the exercise.
It always does no matter what I do.
Instead, Miss Schnee resigned, herself to wait patiently and half listen to the conversation of her excited and immature partner while Miss Belladonna made polite and short replies to her antics. Miss Schnee hoped this fight would provide her useful insight.
In truth Miss Schnee did not know what she had expected.
Mr Torrez was a large and powerfully built young man with shockingly dark, red hair which was styled into a dreadlock fashion. With dark skin and near entirely white attire, composed of a sleeveless shirt that hugged his bulging muscles and a pair of tight trousers which met with a pair of black combat boots with spikes on the steel caps. He posed an intimidating sight. In his hands he carried a large, battle axe with a mighty head standing about two a foot in length on its' own. It seemed to be able to shift into a pair of short, bladed double barrel shotguns. If Miss Schnee was just a run of the mil student, she would have bet on the man that stood a foot taller than his opponent who was eyeing him with a carefree smirk.
Fortunately, though. Miss Schnee wasn't just a run of the mill student. She was an heiress raised to be able to read a room and instantly spot the most powerful and dangerous people in the room. It was this that Miss Schnee knew who the winner would be.
She had at least hoped that the fight wouldn't be so quick.
In less than thirty seconds, Miss Xiao Long had smashed through Mr Torrez's defences, near bending his axe in half and landing a series of crushing blows to his stomach and torso. His aura had dropped into the red in mere moments and Miss Goodwitch called a halt to the fight. Praising them both and pointing out flaws in the technique. It was expected when Miss Goodwitch seemed to have a lot more to say about Mr Torrez's flaws than Miss Xiao Long.
Miss Rose flew into a frenzy of praise and cheers as she cried out her praises to her sister who winked and grinned at her in turn.
Miss Belladonna gave a rather surprising cheer of her own, though it was notably much quieter than the girl beside her.
Giving in to good manners, Miss Schnee clapped her hands politely and offered a smile to Miss Xiao Long, who took note of this and her smile seemed to dim for the slightest of moments before it grew into her wild grin again. As she left the arena and approached her seat, she seemed to look over to her right and flashed a smile towards none other than Miss Valkyrie who shot one back and nodded, seemingly having been told something by Miss Xiao Long.
The rest of the fights had been rather boring for Miss Schnee, though she kept up appearances, as was only proper, and clapped politely after each bout as the winner was announced.
Her boredom was halted however when Miss Goodwitch called out the next set of combatants.
"Final fight: Jaune Arc vs Sky Lark! Get ready and return in five minutes"
Miss Schnee heard the chorus of cheers from the remaining members of team JNPR. The cries being mainly from Miss Valkyrie, though she did hear some from Miss Nikos as well.
After a brief wait, the combatants came forth.
Mr Lark had pale skin and an overall thin body type. His long hair and eyes were a pale blue, with said hair being combed back to curl around his neck slightly. His garments were a set of bland looking plate armour of dark and light greys, it seemed more for practicality than appearance. Beneath this, Mr Lark wore a black V-neck shirt and a set of black trousers that hung on his small frame of a body.
In his hands he carried a large and imposing halberd, with an inward curving axe head on the one side while a smaller spike protruded from the other. At closer inspection it seemed that the weapon had a functionality similar to Crescent Rose in that it appeared to have a firing mechanism and a barrel at the end of its' shaft.
He… looked ready for combat. Sword and shield drawn, armour worn correctly.
Just as Mr Lark was about to enter the arena, Mr Winchester appeared behind him and seemed to speak to him briefly, a worried expression on his face. Mr lark however seemed to disregard his words, with him pushing off from his annoyed looking leader and shaking his head with a rather sinister smile.
"Begin!" shouted Miss Goodwitch.
Immediately Mr Lark unleashed multiple rounds from the end of his rifle which were stopped when he pulled up his shield in a rather worried fashion and blocked the blows, charging forward to meet his opponent. Showing a surprising amount of acrobatics, Mr Lark easily jumped his charge by using his weapon as a pole to vault over and landed behind him delivering a punishing blow to him who landed on the floor with a pained grunt. He wasn't down for long however as he quickly spun his sword around, forcing Mr Lark to jump back from the attack to his feet. Taking the moment to stand, he was met with a viscous round of attacks from Mr Lark's Halberd's axe. The ringing as he hid behind his shield to avoid the punishing blows. This was to be his undoing however as Mr Lark managed to hook the spike of his weapon around his shield and pulled it free from his grasp and sent it skittering across the floor. Instead of panicking, as Miss Schnee expected, he didn't faulter and struck forward with a powerful slash that landed squarely on Mr Lark's shoulder, sending his reeling from the strike.
He went in for another strike that nicked Mr Lark's leg and another to his hand, Mr Lark's aura dropping rather quickly from the sustained attacks that juts kept coming, hitting him in any available area to him.
Where did he get this skill from?
His luck didn't seem to hold however as Mr Lark seemed to get a second wind and knocked the attacking sword to the side and stabbed forwards with his weapon, striking him squarely in the chest and used the force to shove him to the floor, weapon trained over his heart.
Instead of attacking or forcing him to concede defeat, Mr Lark seemed to sneer at him and spoke words that Miss Schnee could quite hear over the roar of the crowd.
At first his face seemed to be one anguish at defeat, yet as Mr Lark spoke, that face grew darker and darker. His mouth turned into a toothy snarl and his eyes seeming to hold a fury that even took Miss Schnee by surprise. He began to talk back at Mr Lark, lips moving in slow and purposeful movements. As Miss Schnee watched, she noted that Mr Lark seemed to become less confident, his brave bravado disappearing. In a turn of anger, Mr Lark growled back a response. He stopped speaking, instead a white glow began to emanate from his body.
In a sudden turn of events, Mr Lark was knocked to the ground by a powerful leg sweep, as he fell he delivered a punishing punch to Mr Lark's face that crackled with a veil of aura so strong it caused those in the audience closest to the fight to cover their eyes.
Mr Lark crashed to the ground with a thunderous boom, the room growing silent as they watched his aura level drop into the red.
"The winner is Jaune Arc!" Miss Goodwitch, announced and the room seemed to erupt into cheers as he seemed to be recovering from a daze, shaking his head a looking at the crowd in astonishment. A smile appearing on his face.
Miss Rose and Miss Xiao Long along with the female members of team JNPR were the loudest in the room, the cries of praise and happiness causing Miss Schnee's head to hurt and polite praise from Mr Lie who clapped and offered a sincere smile to his leader.
Miss Schnee attempted to give her praise as well, raising her hands to clap, but was surprised to find that she seemingly couldn't bring herself to. It was rude and above all below her, but no matter her attempts, she seemingly couldn't make herself clap for his victory.
After a brief discussion about their performance, both fighters were sent to re-join their teams.
Mr Lark receiving a smack on the head from Mr Winchester, and him being grabbed in a tight hug by Miss Valkyrie who didn't seem to notice the audible crunch from her leader.
"Well, that was fun!" Miss Xiao Long shouted, getting up and placing her hands on her hips. "Now that it's finally the end of the day, how about we go relax in our room? After all, I think I need to bask in my badass-ness just a bit longer before we head for dinner"
She was greeted by the exasperated groans of Miss Rose and the eyeroll of Miss Belladonna who badly hid a small smile. They both agreed to her idea happily, however. Miss Xiao Long then turned her sights upon Miss Schnee.
"How about you, Weiss? Wanna head back?" she questioned, something about the way she looked at Miss Schnee and smiled at her sending warning signs throughout her head.
The idea did appeal to Miss Schnee however, she could gain even more of a leap in revision and it would have been rude to refuse Miss Xiao Long's idea, no matter how odd the look she gave Miss Schnee.
"I see no problem with that" she replied, smiling at Miss Xiao Long.
"Good! Now c'mon guys!" she hollered, Miss Schnee and the others rising to follow the happy blonde.
Jaune wasn't sure what had happened in the brief moment between him and his team getting up and heading back to their room to allow Nora to, yet again, celebrate his victory over Sky. It wasn't a victory he was proud of to be honest, not with how he'd won and he knew he'd have to talk to Coco and Velvet about it at a later point. But who was he to stop Nora when she was so happy? Frankly, his entire team seemed to be happy. After the events of last night, he assumed they were all happy that Jaune had been open with and trusted them enough to know the truth about his acceptance into Beacon. Frankly they had been nothing but supportive this entire time and it warmed his heart to know his team was so accepting of him.
What happened next however made his head spin, literally. Yang and Nora had seemed to bump into one another despite clearly knowing the other was there, sending them flying. Nora tumbling into Jaune and Yang falling back into the shocked looking eyes of Weiss. The resulting crash drew intense laughter and jeer from the rest of the students around them who laughed at their plight.
The collective groans from the people caught in the fall were heard loud and clear throughout the room. The remaining members of their collective teams all scrambled to help them up but were waved off by the hands of Nora and Yang.
Yang was the first to recover, getting up and apologising to the mildly annoyed looking Weiss who told her to be more careful in an oddly kind tone for her, it was a tone he'd never heard her use. If he were being frank, it slightly unnerved him. Jaune himself, however seemed to be stuck beneath the crushing body of Nora.
She didn't seem all that worried as Jaune gasped for breath, smiling cheerfully as she slowly removed herself from him, much to his relief. Getting up slowly, he shot her a mildly annoyed look and sighed. "Mind explaining why you just tried to make me into a pancake?" he asked her, eyes shooting wide in worry as the girl picked up on a certain word in that sentence. "I am not. I repeat, I am not a pancake"
"Awwww…" she grumbled, kicking her foot against the floor in a show of her disappointment. "Sorry, Jauney! Guess I wasn't being careful around with where I was going!" she replied, her beaming smile turned up to eleven as she looked at him with her best innocent look, before directing her gaze towards the two girls she'd knocked over. "Sorry to you too Yang, Weiss! Guess I got excited after Jaune delivered swift justice to the enemy!"
"No prob" Yang replied, smiling despite the fact she'd just risked her precious hair being stepped on. "Accidents happen"
"Yes, they do" Weiss replied simply, her face barely showing any emotion besides a thin smile. "Please be more careful in future, however"
Just what the heck is up with her? She's not acting normal… you know what? None of my business jaune mentally told himself. The last thing he needed was to make things weirder between them. He had to listen to Coco's advice, if he felt like he could talk to Weiss after a couple weeks. Frankly he wasn't sure if he felt like he could.
"Okey-doke, Weiss!" Nora replied, seeming to not notice the way Weiss was acting. Turning around to join an embarrassed looking Pyrrha, a mildly aching Jaune and a solemn as usual Ren.
"Yo, Jaune? Sorry about getting you crushed there, you okay?" Yang called as team JNPR moved to attempt to leave the room the room. Jaune half turned, giving her a rather sheepish smile. His eyes naturally averting from the blank faced girl beside her, instead focusing on the beaming blonde herself.
Every time he even caught a glimpse of her in the corner of his eye, he could feel it.
The beat would begin to rise and rumble like thunder, crashing against the mental damn he'd constructed to try and stop him feeling the emotions he desperately didn't want to feel, the last thing he needed was to make someone feel the need to give him a hug or try and console him. That was when the really bad emotions started to come forth. He didn't want to feel those emotions any time soon.
"Yeah… nothing but a few cracked ribs!" he joked, offering what even he knew was a bad attempt at a smile. He didn't want to be here. He didn't feel ready to be this close to… her.
Yang followed by Nora's example, however and didn't seem to take note of this. Instead she simply smiled and nodded her head. "Well, least I won't lose sleep knowing I helped to cripple an up and coming badass!" she joked back, her eyes full of mischief and mayhem that could only be matched by his own team's resident berserker. "Anyway, seems like you guys need to be off, talk later okay?" she more told the team in front of her than asked and they were frankly unsurprised. Yang was a social creature who enjoyed being surrounded by people. To have not talked properly to the team she was closest to must have been annoying.
"Of course, it's been far too long" Pyrrha replied politely, a smile gracing her lips.
"Too right!" Ruby yelled, appearing behind her elder sister. "You guys aren't gonna get away that easily!" she laughed, and Jaune couldn't help but smile at her infectious happiness. It was a nice reprieve from the slump he'd been in.
Good. Jaune thought, as he and his team all waved their goodbye's to RWBY who in turn, aside from a certain member all waved back. Nice to now this whole thing hasn't stopped them wanting to be our friends… that's a bonus at least.
After their impromptu reunion with team RWBY, team JNPR were once again, relaxing in their room. The day had been hard and frankly they all seemed to be content with just lazing about their beds.
Jaune was busy lying down on his bed, simply relaxing after reading one of his 'X-ray and Vav' comics. He didn't really feel like doing much, so instead of finding something physical to do, he instead took a glance over to see what the rest of his team were getting up to.
Nora was blasting music into her ears through a vibrant pink headset while scrolling through her scroll on an apparent mission to find cute pictures of sloth's. She seemed to be obsessed with them and the noises they make. Frankly Jaune wasn't too sure as to what noises a sloth would make, but he was certain none of the sounds Nora made were even close to what they sounded like.
Ren was busy practising his meditation. When he'd been questioned by Jaune as to why he was doing it in there… less than quiet room, he'd stated 'Some people choose to meditate under large waterfalls to train their concentration and perseverance, I choose an equally loud and distracting environment to train mine' this had earned a hurt sounding 'hey!' from Nora who gave him a mild glare that came off as more of a pout before slipping on her headset again.
Pyrrha on the other hand was busy polishing her weapons, Milo and Akouo* to give them a perfect and godly shine. She took great care of her weapons and armour and it was one of the things she seemed to really enjoy as she spent her time, meticulously buffing out sign of imperfection in her arsenal. Jaune was glad to have a friend like Pyrrha who cared enough to help him with his short comings. Be it combat or classes, she seemed to always have the time for him. Honestly Jaune was a bit worried that people would get the wrong idea and think that Pyrrha had a crush on him. Like that would ever happen.
It was in this moment of Jaune thinking about the little ways his friends seemed to spend their time, that Pyrrha's scroll began to buzz. In a movement so fluid she may as well have been water, Pyrrha carefully placed down her shield with one hand and picked up her scroll in the other without even pausing or slowing her movements.
"Oh… it's my agent" she said, her smile dimming ever so slightly. "I'm sorry, but I have to take this" she said with an apologetic look to her team.
"No worries, Pyrrha, just try not to break his heart when you turn down yet another one of his offers to convince Ozpin to let him hang Pumpkin Pete banners around the school" Jaune smiled, earning a light giggle from the Spartan as she left to deal with the man on the other end of the device. He could deal with all his crappy emotions later if it meant making his team smile like he just did with Pyrrha.
Realizing he now had nothing to do again, Jaune made to grab his scroll from his pocket, only to find the device gone.
"Huh?" Jaune remarked, looking confused as he began to pat down the rest of his pockets in search of the illusive device.
Nora seemed to perk up at spotting him doing this.
"Whatya up to, Fearless Leader?" she questioned, removing her headset to look at him, a certain twinkle in her eye. "Lose something?"
"Yeah… my scroll, I could have sworn I put it back in my pocket after my fight" he replied, half focusing on her words as began to look through his bed sheets to see if he'd dropped it in there.
"Hrmm… maybe you dropped it when we all fell in the arena?" she offered, seemingly interested in a thread of fabric that was sticking out of her shorts.
"You know, I bet you're right!" Jaune smiled, getting up and nodding a thanks to her. "This is why I'm glad to be your friend" he said before darting out of the room to retrieve his lost device.
A smile crept upon Nora's face, she seemed oddly happy with herself which didn't go unnoticed by her partner.
"Oaky, what did you do?" he asked, making the girl jump at his sudden voice.
"What, I can't be a good buddy to Jauney, without some ulterior motive? I'm hurt, Ren. I thought you trusted me more…" she pouted, her lower lip wobbling as she did.
Ren felt his stomach lurch, why? Why did she have to pull that face? He couldn't help but feel bad as she let out a cute huff as she crossed her arms.
"I'm sorry, you're right" he said, trying to cheer her up.
Her change in emotion was near instantaneous as her head whipped up with a huge grin plastered on her face.
"Aww, thanks Renny!" she smiled, hoping up and making towards the door. "I'm gonna go weight training with Yang, if you really wanna make it up to me, how about you make me your special pancakes?"
Ren looked at her in modest surprise and confusion but ultimately replied to her.
"My Okonomiyaki? But that will take me ages to make"
Her pout returned and Ren instantly hated himself for not being able to resist that look.
"Alright, if it will make you happy and give me some piece and quiet. Then I will"
"YAY!" she squealed, hopping up and down on the spot. "Thanks, Renny! See ya later!"
With that she darted out of the door and slammed it shut, much to the mild annoyance of her team member who began to gather the ingredients from beneath his bed.
Nora left the room just in time to see Weiss, hurriedly leave the room in the direction of the arena. Looking away from the rapidly disappearing form of Weiss, she turned her attention back towards the doorway to team RWBY's room.
There stood a proud and daring Yang, who nodded at Nora who nodded back at her with a knowing look.
"Hey, Rubes, Blake?" she called inside and got a murmur of responses from within. "I'm gonna go for a run with Nora, be back soon"
"Okay" came the quiet voice of Ruby from within.
With that Yang shut the door and the two girls stared at each other before beginning to walk in the same direction, Weiss and Jaune had taken.
"Ready?" Yang asked, raising a fist for Nora to bump.
"Ready!" she grinned, accepting the fist with her own. "Begin plan: Make our friends talk and stop being mopey!"
Miss Schnee was slightly annoyed with herself. How could she lose her scroll? She was usually impeccable at keeping her belongings in safe and known locations.
Her scroll, for example, she always kept in one of her many hidden pockets of her combat skirt. It was securely kept in there at all times when she was wearing her combat outfit and wasn't using it.
So how had she lost it? Miss Schnee didn't know, but she did indeed need to get it back.
Imagine the travesty and controversy if people became aware that she had lost her scroll after being knocked to the ground by Miss Xiao Long and Miss Valkyrie.
Stupid, Yang. She should watch where she's going!
Casually as she could, Miss Schnee entered the arena and immediately stopped dead in her tracks.
He was there. Seemingly oblivious to her presence as he seemed to be looking for something as well. Looking underneath benches and crawling around on all fours.
No. this cannot be happening! Why now!
Miss Schnee suddenly decided that she could look for her scroll another time. It wasn't like anyone would see the scroll and immediately think it was hers or anything. Besides, it was the end of the day, the halls were practically devoid of students and teachers alike.
If she simply walked back out of the room while making as little noise as possible, she could still keep to her deal with him.
That was her plan as she turned around. That was her plan until she saw the smirking look of Miss Xiao Long at the doorway, who promptly slammed the door shut and another door slammed shut at the other end of the room. But not before giving a glimpse at the equally evil smirk on Miss Valkyrie's her face.
The slamming caused him to jolt his head up slightly, looking around the room before he spotted Miss Schnee. His eyes grew wide as he stared at her and then the now shut doors which made the audible sound of a bolt being slid across the top and bottom.
"Yang, I will not stand for this. Release me, please"
Miss Schnee called to the door only to get a guffaw in response.
"Not until you two make up! I'm sick of seeing you both so down!" came Yang's voice, to be joined by Nora's.
"Same goes for you, Jauney! Talk or we'll never let you out!"
No. Why? Why?! Why are you doing this to me!? Why would you make me go through this!/ why can't you just leave me alone on this!?
"Yang. There is nothing to talk about, as I have explained many times before" Miss Schnee replied, trying to ignore the thudding in her chest as it grew louder and louder.
"Talk. Or you aren't getting out" came the mildly growled reply.
Behind Miss Schnee, he was busy trying to understand just why Nora would do this to him.
What do I do!? I can try and break open the door but then if I get through I'll be in trouble with Miss Goodwitch! If I don't I'll just hurt myself and Weiss will probably laugh at me. Wait. Why did I just think that?
Jaune's mind was racing a mile a minute.
How was he supposed to deal with something like this!? How was he supposed to justtalk to her!?
Why the hell was this happening to him!?
The beat smashed and crashed into it's bone prison.
It hurt. It hurt so much that he wanted to scream!
What would he even say if he tried to speak to her again?
'I get that I was an asshole who couldn't take a hint, but you hurt my feelings, so I guess we're as bad as each other!?' Oh yes. That would work wonders! But.. what other choice did he have? Ignore her until a teacher found them and got them out of here? That could be hours and he frankly didn't think the song would let him.
"Heh… ummm, hi"
Miss Schnee was prepared to deal with many situations in life. Having practically grown up around men and woman she would honestly say she was not fond of, made her bale to deal with most situations in a short and curt manner.
She could use her dust to escape the room, but to do so would cause damage to the door and the surrounding area. That was something she could not do.
How dare Miss Xiao Long and Miss Valkyrie do this to her. This was above cruel and unkind and was, to be quite frank, childish. Miss Schnee was perfectly fine with the situation as it was. She had to believe he was fine with it as well as he had made no attempt to try and go back on his agreement on purpose.
None at all…
So she was perfectly fine with simply standing here in silence until teachers arrived. Which was bound to be soo-
"Heh… ummm, hi" came the voice belonging to him from behind her.
Miss Schnee felt herself stiffen for an odd reason. The thumping in her chest becoming even more noticeable as she heard the words.
Now? Now you talk? Why!? Why wont even you leave me alone!?
Miss Schnee knew to respond to him though. She would make her statement brief and to the point.
"I am unfortunately unable to talk to you, Mr Arc so if you would please leave me be"
Weiss's words confused him. she had sounded far too formal and odd, he had expected her to not want to talk but the way she had phrased it gave him reason to pause. Also, what was with her calling him 'Mr Arc' like he was a complete stranger? Frankly it annoyed him more than a little.
Letting out a calming breath, Jaune decided to try again, despite all him wanting to do was get away from the girl that was causing all the pain he was beginning to deal with to resurface with horrid intent.
"They aren't gonna let us outta here, until we talk, Weiss" he put simply, noting her shoulders clench slightly as he spoke. "Frankly I don't think this is the right time but I think we need to sit down and-"
"I am sorry, Mr Arc, but I cannot talk to right now. As I neither have the time nor the want to" her reply, instead of being in the usual monotone voice that held a smile, now carried with it a hint of venomous anger.
Jaune felt the pain rise. He had done this. He had caused this, and it made him angry. That and her words were slowly beginning to cause his temper to rise, despite him doing his best to calm himself. He decided to try again.
Miss Schnee was doing her very best to be polite to him. She really was, but he just wouldn't give up. He seemed to want to talk with her, despite his deal with Miss Schnee.
Her annoyance at him breaking their deal so easily was definitely the cause of the rapid thumping in her chest. It hurt and made Miss Schnee feel a mild sense of anger. Him breaking the deal had to be the reason she was upset. It just had to be.
Go away! Leave! Do what you do best and leave me alone to wallow in self-pity!
The mask cracked ever so slightly at his next words.
"Look. We both messed up, okay?" He said, his words grating like nails on a chalk board to Miss Schnee's ears. "I… should have taken the hint"
"Yes. Yes, you should have" Miss Schnee snapped, surprising herself. It wasn't proper to do so, even during an argument.
Miss Schnee could have sworn she heard him let out a deep exhale of air, seemingly annoyed by her response.
The mask cracked slightly further.
You think you have the right to be angry with me!? After everything you did to me. After having to make me deal with your incessant flirts for how long!?
"But. I think you can agree that what you said was out of line. You agree?"
Miss Schnee chose not to comment, in part as she felt no need to reply to him and was too busy dealing with the throbbing beating pains in her chest that rang with every word he spoke.
"Look I am at least trying here" the growl in his voice obvious and showing his anger towards her silence. "I get it. Bad Jaune for being stupid. Frankly though, you said some pretty damn nasty things to me and it hurt. A lot. Still hurts now if I'm being honest. So at least talk to me so we can get through this crap and maybe even try and be friends?"
The mask shattered.
The rage filled face of Weiss Schnee took its' place.
Weiss span around with such force that it took Jaune by surprised when she stormed up to him and began screaming at him.
"Friends? Friends? Why the hell would I ever want to be friends with you!? You cowardly, stupid, ugly Retrobate!" she screamed, her face red with rage and her eyes cold as ice as she stared at the him with nothing short of disgust. "You had every chance to talk to me last night when I was trying not to cry my eyes out over how terrible I felt about what I did and said to you! But no! You just looked away and left me there! Do you have any idea how that made me feel!?"
The words hit hard for Jaune. If this were any other time he may have done his best to apologise and do his best to try and make it up to the screaming girl.
But this wasn't any other time. This was now. As jaune watched the red mist descend, he felt nothing but rage in himself.
"Who the hell do you think you are!? Telling me I hurt you!? Do you have any idea how hard this has been for me!? To be told I'm nothing but a piece of shit that was so shallow as to want you for anything other than love!? That's right! I fucking loved you! When you said what you did, you know what my first response was!? To walk away to not cause more of a scene! The entire time this has been going on I've been blaming myself for upsetting you, hating myself for making you feel so bad because I couldn't take a hint! But you know what!? You fucked up just as much as I did!"
"Oh, please!" Weiss screamed back, not backing down from the bastard in front of her. "I tried to apologise to you! I tried my best to apologise and make up for it! But what did you do!? You decided that you didn't want an apology! You wanted to make me go away, because you wanted to be depressed and upset didn't you! Bet all that attention you must have been getting from Pyrrha and that Faunus girl, must have made you feel good!"
That. Was a very poor move in Jaune's opinion.
"Don't you fucking dare talk about Velvet like that! She's one of the nicest people I've ever met, and she helped me deal with the shit you caused! Someone like you doesn't deserve to even speak her name!" he roared, walking up the bitch before him, his body mere inches from hers.
"Oh!? Someone like me!? Please, do tell me what kind of person I am!" she yelled, uncaring as to whether or not anyone else heard her.
"Hehehe…" he laughed darkly, pushing his face right up to hers. "An uncaring, cold hearted bitch who doesn't deserve to ever experience love. You deserve to live the rest of your pathetic life alone, with no one to crush like you did, me. Because anyone stupid enough to ever fall in love with you like I did, shouldn't have to go through the pain of wondering 'should I kill myself today? I am such a waste of life after all if all I want is some snobby bitch's money, fame or body according to Miss Weiss Schnee'. Congratulations though, you officially killed my belief that love is real. Because I thought I loved you. But that can't be right, because a world where people are allowed to think they're in love with someone as vile as you, can't possibly contain any real form of love. You happy, Snow Angel?"
Weiss stood there staring at him. her mind going blank as she felt the red mist descend over her eyes. Without a notion of knowing she was doing it, she pulled out a pulsing, fire dust vile out of her sleeve. It glowed with hellish light in her hands as she flowed her aura into it. She wanted this pest to go away. This ugly, disgusting pest to just disappear. It would be so easy, just charge the dust and erase his existence in an instant.
She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream and hit him and tell him, he was a monster calling her such vile things.
He was the monster here. Making her think that a decent man out there was real. Making her think that he had actually cared about her at all. Having her believe that someone like him was capable of actually being sad and broken about her words. To have loved her so much that her latest rejection was enough to finally break him.
She wanted him to just disappear. She could do it. Just throw it and watch all her pain burn away to nothing.
"Do it." He growled, standing to his full height and stepping back. Spreading his arms wide to give her an easy target. "Do it and prove to me that you really are just a monster"
Weiss saw his eyes. They were ones that were full of pain and hurt. But she didn't care. Not anymore. What she saw in those eyes was someone who wanted to die. Who secretly just wanted to be done with it all. To pass on to whatever came after death. That was what he wanted.
Weiss wasn't going to give him that pleasure.
She threw the vial at the door, watching It explode into smithereens and leaving a rather terrified looking Yang and Nora to simply watch the end of their work through the smouldering remains of the door
She then walked up to the mildly surprised looking Jaune and delivered a viscous slap across his cheek, not even feeling his aura as her hand left a cruel, red mark across his cheek.
"You want to know what would make me happy?" she said, looking at him with tears in her eyes that she would not shed. Not in front of him. "You want to die so badly? Then kill two birds with one stone and find the nearest tall building and jump" with that she stormed off.
Stopping at Yang who tried to speak but received a slap of her own and a ice cold demand later, gave Weiss hack her scroll. Ruby appeared with Ren around the corner. Both going from looking worried to looking at the two girls who had locked Jaune in the arena with utter contempt and disappointment.
Ruby sped off to be chased by Yang. But Jaune didn't care.
He simply allowed his body to slump back onto one of the benches. His hand balled into fists and shaking with adrenaline and rage.
"J-Jaune" came the mousey voice of Nora.
The girl who had played an integral part in what had just happened. The girl who had just caused him all this pain and rage.
Rising, he stood to his full height and loomed over her. His face full of fury. It was a side Nora had never seen, and it quite frankly scared her.
"Give. Me. My. Scroll." He growled, his voice dripping with boiling rage.
Nora shakily passed him the scroll, not able to tear her eyes from her leaders.
I-I…. I was just trying to help…" she whispered, not sure as to what else to say to such a situation.
"You're right" she heard him say in his cheery voice, but the look in his eyes said anything but. "You helped me realise I need to pick better friends"
With that he walked off. Leaving Nora to simply watch him leave. Unable to fathom what was happening. She turned to Ren for help but found him staring at her in disappointment.
He didn't say a word, but she saw his body lose all colour for the briefest of moments as he exhaled slowly. He had used his semblance… to calm himself down?
"I think it's best you stay away from the room until tonight, Nora" he said flatly. Not even looking her in the eye before turning around to leave as well.
"But…. Ren?" she whimpered, feeling as scared and alone as she had been all those years ago.
"Don't, Nora. Just don't" with that he left, leaving Nora to crumple to her knees and begin to cry. This was just like back then. She was alone and afraid. But this time, Ren wasn't here to save her.
Phew… crap that was emotional.
I apologise to anyone I made cry but I did warn you all ;)
See you all next time. At forever fall.