Here we go again. A comparatively short chapter since we are going to go veeery slowly until the happy couple is together again.
I kind of prefer slow stories anyway, and no, I'm not bitter.
RWBY is the property of RT and the creation of Monty Oum, Miles Luna, Kerry Shawcross and many others.
The days flew by as the date dreaded by all schoolchildren irrespective of age, sex and academic ability came like a thief in the night. And it was therefore poetic irony that the only one who didn't know about it was the only thief in the small village of Orleans.
"So..you are lolling about like a sick man because your holidays are over? That's it?", Emerald asked in a combination of stunned surprise and mild amusement at the sight of her friend Jaune lying down on the grass like a lazy dog.
"That's it?", said Jaune in a strangled voice. "That's it? Emerald, are you comprehending my predicament here?!" The boy's voice went up a few pitches.
"No, and I have no idea what those words mean either.", Emerald said with blunt and brutal honesty. Jaune ,however, proved to be as dense as osmium, and her tone pinged off him.
There was even a ping, if you listened closely.
"My entire vacation, my time of lazing around in the sun is over! Now I have to deal with exams and homework and classes! Do you see what the issue is here, Em? Do you see why I'm panicking?", Jaune complained loudly, all fatigue forgotten as he sat up to gesticulate wildly. Emerald simply raised a sceptical eyebrow in response .
"Firstly, you weren't panicking. Actually, you were not doing anything. Secondly, I think you're overreacting. School couldn't really be that bad. You get to just," she flopped down besides him, looking up at the green leaves of the tree Jaune was laid out under. "Go there and have fun. With friends and games and everything. And all you have to do is read some books."
Jaune glared at her betrayal. "As if reading books is fun. And no, we don't get to do all that unless we read boring stories about how Vale was formed, learnt the name of the Councillors of Vale and try to figure out how many cakes a baker sells. That or try to remember all the rivers and mountains of Remnant and all the Kings of Vale. You tell me how I can enjoy school!"
He slumped back broodingly, before a thought came to him. "...well, there are some cool books we have. Like when we read about the great Huntsmen and Huntresses and the cool stuff they did." Slowly warming to his topic, he sat up against the tree. Emerald turned her head curiously at him. "There's the one about how Zacharias the Wizard trapped the evil witch of Evernight. Or the one where Emmanuel the Fall Knight beat the Winter Maiden when she tried to freeze the world. Or how Isaac killed the Nevermore that ate the stars."
His tone had changed. It was not the vexatious, whiny tone of a ten going on eleven year old boy about going to school after the holidays. Instead, it was the dreamy, but subtly excited tone of a young boy reminiscing about the tales he heard of heroes and monsters. As he spoke of the stories, the excitement became less and less subtle until he was grinning as he told Emerald the stories he loved. About the brave warrior facing down the wicked being of cold that wished eternal Winter on the Kingdoms. About the clever wizard who trapped the evil witch in her own tower. About the Hero who shot down the massive Beast of Extinction that devoured the heavens.
"It sounds wonderful.", breathed Emerald, laid out on her stomach as Jaune finished the last tale, describing the defeated Nevermore falling to Remnant with obvious gusto. The green haired girl's eyes were shining with the awe of a child hearing a diary tale for the first time. Which it was for her, for a child who had spent her life, until just about a month or so ago, in a harsh world where she had little time for dreams.
No wonder the fantasies appealed to her.
"Yeah, they're pretty cool." Jaune shrugged, feeling much better now that he remembered the better parts of his studies. Sure, fractions sucked, but he got to do fun stuff too. Like raiding the library for storybooks or playing football.
Suddenly, Jaune felt more optimistic about school starting.
"Thanks, Em.", he said cheerfully, dusting his trousers as he got up. Emerald followed him, frowning in confusion.
"No problem, but for what?", she asked, confused but all the same trying to humour her weird friend.
He chuckled and broke into a sprint. Emerald followed him easily, her Aura enhanced legs making the difference in height inconsequential.
"For cheering me up.", he grinned as he continued to try and outrun her. He never succeeded despite being tall and strong for his age, but it was still something he kept trying to do. After all, what guy could take losing to a girl lying down?
Not Jaune Arc, that's who!
"Moving on from your weird insistence that I did something to make you thank me, could you do me a little favour? And slow down, you're only going to get yourself tired", Emerald's voice was as dry as sand as she effortlessly kept pace with the panting Jaune. The blond boy reluctantly stopped and sat down on the grass to recuperate, eyeing the irritatingly fresh Emerald with undisguised envy.
"What favour?", he asked when he caught his breathe again.
"Well...", Emerald started and stopped, realising how weird her request was going to sound like.
Recognising that his friend was tongue tied for the n'th time, Jaune performed his time honoured technique of sitting down and waiting for her to speak. Shame that he didn't have a comic to read this time until her phase was over.
Thankfully, he didn't have to wait for long this time.
"I want to read your storybooks!", she said firmly.
...though perhaps that wasn't such a good thing.
"You want to read my storybooks?", Jaune repeated in a deadpan voice not unlike Emerald's, not exactly following her line of thought but deciding to humour his weird friend. "Why?"
Emerald pouted fiercely at his tone. "I-if you're just going to be like that, then forget It!" She stamped her foot in anger, her face red.
"No, no.", Jaune said soothingly. "It's alright. No need to tell me. Of course you can have them. I was just curious, that's all."
Emerald stopped glaring at him and shrunk down, her angry flush turned into a small red blush on her cheeks.
"I'm sorry", she mumbled shamefacedly. Jaune shrugged and accepted the apology gracefully.
"Forget it. Just remember to get them yourself. I'll be on the train to Vale this afternoon." At this, Emerald perked up her head in surprise.
"Vale?", she asked.
Jaune, who had been engaged in trying to fish his watch out from his various pockets, absentmindedly gave an explanation. "There's no good school here which teaches past primary, so I'm going to my Aunt and sisters in Vale. " he finally retrieved his watch. "Uh, oh, got to go."
"Wait!", Emerald cried out. "When will you be back?"
Jaune shrugged. "Four months until the Winter vacations. Don't worry, I'll call every week from Vale. Bye!"
He scurried away at top speed, leaving a lonely green haired girl in between the trees.
That afternoon, Jaune was seen off the Orleans Railway Station (built circa 49 PV) by his entire family, with the addition of Emerald who had been brought there to say her byes by a determined Marie. The green haired girl had pushed a small cake she had hastily baked with help from Marie into his hands and left. Before she could run off and avoid showing him her face, he had just pulled her into a hug.
It had been too much.
She had managed to keep the sniffing low enough that nobody had remarked loudly, though they had clearly noticed. Mrs Arc gave her a small hug, the oldest blonde girl patted her head and that acidic looking twin(Beryl?) had given her a comforting hand at her shoulder.
It had been a very miserable walk back to the Inn. She had stopped responding to Marie's words as they had neared the house, and had just ran up to the room. Undaunted, the older girl had barged upstairs and forced her way in.
Which brought them to this point. Emerald was face down on the bed, lethargic and unresponsive. Marie, in turn, was trying her best to make the green haired girl get up and stop acting like the world was coming to an end.
"Look here, kiddo. He ain't gone to fight in the Great War. He just went to school. He'll be back for the Winter Holidays in four months, so you need to stop moping around."
Emerald made a strange noise that was muffled by the mattress.
"Now, I don't get whatever you're babbling there, but I strongly suggest that you get your mug out of the bed before I physically remove you."
Again, she made a strange muffled sound. Marie's eye twitched.
A minute later, Mrs Holz stepped in to see the two girls squirming together on the bed, the taller brunette trying to physically remove the smaller greenette off the bed and being faced with her unnatural strength. The older girl's freckled face was split into a fierce grin while the smaller girl was scowling as she wrestled the larger girl off. The two were making sounds like a pair of cats thrown into a sack.
"Enough!", thundered the Innkeeper. "Marie, get off Emerald right now! The two of you are acting like a couple of Beowolves in a barn!"
The girls disengaged sheepishly, Emerald shooting off angry glares at Marie that only made the older girl smirk before she saw the expression on her mothers face.
"On the bright side, it seems like young Emerald has stopped pining for that straw headed fool.", said the giant woman with an acidic tinge to her voice. "However, I won't stand for such idiocy in this Inn. Marie, go help your sister pack her bags, then pack your own. Emerald, stay here. I need to talk to you."
Marie stalked off with a contrite air, leaving Emerald alone with the terrible old woman. The small green girl looked nervously at her face, but it was as stony as ever, and she got no idea about whether or not she was about to be punished.
Personally, she hoped not. After all, it wasn't her fault!
"Marie seems to have taken your mind off your troubles.", Mrs Holz observed after a few moments of silence. Emerald noted her words with some surprise.
She...was right. Just a while ago, she had been feeling down in the dumps with Jaune leaving her for months.
She felt better now.
Mrs Holz grunted in amusement. "That girl knows how to cheer people up, that she does. Her elder sister is a bit like Jaune's eldest sister, all brooding and serious. But little Marie always makes her laugh whenever she wants to. That's what she was doing with you as well."
Emerald blinked. Was that what Marie had been doing? Cheering her up?
It had definitely worked.
She suddenly felt a surge of shame. She had been acting like a spoilt child. Her. Spoilt. But it was true. She had been sad that Jaune was not with her, and she had been reduced to lying down on a soft bed and refusing to move. Something like this wouldn't have flown in the streets, just a month ago.
Had she changed so quickly? Within just a month, had she gone from a girl who knew how to take care of herself into a weak sop?
All the same, there was one thing she had to do.
"I'm sorry, Mrs Holz", she said humbly. She lived in this woman's house. If nothing else, she knew to take responsibility. "I-I shouldn't have gone to pieces like that. I was-" She was cut off by a short from Mrs Holz. The old woman was staring at her with an odd expression.
"Look here, kid.", she said. "My kids leave around this time for school. Once they leave, I know that I cannot talk to them nor see them again for months on end. For about three to four months, give or take, I have to stay alone without the people with whom I spend the most light hearted time of my life."
Emerald looked up at her in confusion. She didn't see where this was going.
"First time they left,", she continued. "I basically spent most of the day trying to keep my mind on the Inn. There was a lot of work to do, always is, so I wasn't too worried until late that night, when I had nothing to do. And then, I did damn near what you were doing. Laid down and tried not to think about how alone I was, until I fell asleep."
She gave a grunt of displeasure. "Didn't work. Only made me more and more tired every day. That was before I got to the root of the problem. That I was too attached to my girls and couldn't take leaving them. Good of old Leonie Arc to tell me that."
She paused. "And that is why you shouldn't do what I did. Don't let it drag you down, girl. It does nobody favours. You're not alone here, and he'll be back pretty soon."
Emerald bowed her head, giving two sharp nods, her face hidden.
"Oh, and another thing." Mrs Holz said, pulling out a thin book from her jacket. "That blonde idiot got this out before he left and that Beryl girl sent it here." She tossed it to Emerald, who caught it deftly. She quickly read the short title.
"Fairy Tales", She muttered, turning the page to start reading then and there. It was difficult to understand, and her face must have reflected the tension.
"Here", the Innkeeper said. The old woman took the book from her hands and opened the first page. "Come here. I'll help you read."
Emerald ran up besides the old woman, who took out an old pair of glasses and began to read.
"Once upon a time, hundreds of years ago.", she recited.
"Once upon a time", repeated Emerald, tracing the words, "hundreds of years ago."
"An old wizard lived alone..."
And thus, the two kept the impromptu lessons on for a while longer, until Emerald had gotten the hang of the story of the Clever Wizard and the Dark Witch. She did not feel lonely after that.
I am back! Work had made it impossible for me to write for some time, but I managed to squeeze this chapter out in the end.
A thing I had always planned was to explore how Emerald would react to being separated from her blonde friend. As we saw in Canon, Emerald fell apart completely had an EPIC breakdown on losing Cinder, so I didn't think that she takes it very well. This was much more muted and short, however, due to the factors that he is much less of a controlling presence than Cinder, she has others to take care of her and she was not allowed to wallow in misery, thanks to an old woman who knows how to handle loneliness.
And yes, there is good reason that Mr Holz is not mentioned.
Also, in case anyone wondered, Jaune has left a day or two early for school due to having to change schools. Since the rest of the kids are already going to Vale for schooling, they will go later.
In case anything was left in this rather rushed product, please leave a review and I will fix it. And do leave reviews if you liked it anyway. Good night/day! :)
