New chapter, enjoy. I'm still getting used to essentially writing these in a single day. It's hard, but the experience is also useful. If you want to improve then sometimes you need to push yourself and I'm hoping this will be the step that helps me grow even further as a writer.

Entertainer – 14

Jaune's legs felt leaden as he rose from the seat. The taste of alcohol lingered in his mouth, yet it mixed with something else… something far more bitter. His hand reached out to take the sword, his sword, and draw it to his waist.

"I understand this might not have been easy to hear," the headmaster said.

Easy to hear? His mouth opened but no sound came forth. Even if it had, there was no telling what it would have been. He shook his head and gave up entirely. "May I be excused, sir?"

"You may, Mr Arc."

Jaune nodded and turned to leave. He almost staggered and fell but managed to catch himself at the last moment. It was the whiskey… it had to be the whiskey. The alcohol must have made his legs feel like lumps of wood, his stomach like it had a hole in it – and his heart heavy. The elevator door dinged open and he stumbled inside.

Before it closed, the headmaster called out. "I'm sorry for your loss."

"I'm fine," he tried to laugh but it came out as a hacking cough. "Hard to miss people you never knew, right?"

Ozpin nodded, but as the door clicked shut, Jaune knew the man hadn't believed him.

To be fair… he didn't either.

/-/

Yang had just bitten down on some steak when Jaune returned. He'd been summoned to the headmaster's office almost immediately upon their arrival, and it was Nora that saw him first. "Hail the returning conqueror," she called, adding a little whoop afterwards for effect. The orange-haired girl cut off a moment later with a worried look, however, and it was until Yang turned around to see him that she understood.

Jaune's face was blank.

It wasn't the blank face of someone surprised or uncertain about something, but rather the expression someone wore when they'd shut down or retreated inside themselves. It was the look of a person that didn't perceive the world around them. It was a look Taiyang Xiao-Long sometimes faded into, when he thought no one was looking. Sometimes he would remain like that for hours.

"Jaune?" Pyrrha whispered, eyes worried, "Is something wrong?"

The blond recovered quickly. He smiled and shook his head, let out a little chuckle and sat down next to Pyrrha to pick up an apple. "I'm fine," he said and bit into it. "I wasn't in trouble if that's what you were thinking."

The fallacy was as clear as day. She didn't think anyone missed it. Even Blake and Weiss watched him with wary expressions, the former having put her book down to do so. Pyrrha was far worse, the girl's green eyes scanning up and down his form. It didn't take her long to notice something out of the ordinary. "Is that a new sword?"

He flinched and looked down at it. They all did. The weapon was still sheathed but it didn't take a genius to see it was a damn sight better than his old one. It looked new and freshly cleaned and she wondered if Ozpin had given it to him. The question was why, and for what reason the headmaster had a spare sword kicking about.

"The headmaster gave it to me," Jaune confirmed her thoughts. "It… apparently it's an inheritance."

An inheritance – but didn't that mean…? Jaune didn't have any family… or rather he hadn't. Well, now she supposed he still didn't. Yang's eyes closed as she let out a long breath. No wonder he looked like that. Shocked mixed with grief, she supposed.

"Well that's good news, isn't it?" Ruby asked. Her darling sister was many things, but quick to catch onto social cues wasn't one of them. "You needed a new sword, right? This will make you stronger."

"I…" Jaune took a deep breath. "I guess it will. Thanks, Ruby. You're right."

Yang felt a wave of bitter sympathy wash over her, but she did her best to squash it down. Ruby didn't realise what she'd said or done and he played it off like there wasn't a problem at all, just so he didn't hurt her feelings. Maybe it was time for her to add a little distraction, however. "We've got the rest of the day off thanks to Forever Fall." she said, drawing attention away from him and unto herself, "I don't know about you guys, but I could do with a nap after all that excitement. You lot doing anything later?"

For a moment she thought no one would chip in, but a soft sigh from her left told her Blake had caught onto the true meaning of her words. "I'm going to spend some time in the library," she said, reluctant to join the conversation but willing to go out on a limb to help partner in the endeavour. "There's a new book I want to try and find. How about you, Ruby?"

The younger girl blinked past a cookie clenched between her teeth. "Oh-uf… I'm going to go and clean Crescent Rose."

"Again?" Weiss sighed, "Didn't you clean it on the way back?"

"Crescent Rose is a `he`, Weiss, not an `it`."

"It's a weapon, you dolt."

"He has feelings!"

"What?" Weiss laughed, "Is he a good conversationalist? The only word he knows is `bang`."

"It's the only word he needs to know. Also, he totally knows swish, ha-yah, ka-pow and all sorts of other things."

Yang chuckled at the interplay between them, even as she watched Jaune from the corner of her eye. He didn't smile at their antics, nor did he really even see them – but his shoulders looked a little less tense. She watched him as he looked at the apple in his hand and put it down with a sigh.

"I think I'm going to go for a walk," he said. "I could use the fresh air."

"What about your food?" Pyrrha asked, worried as usual.

"Don't worry about it. I'm probably just still feeling a little sick after all that sap. I'll stop by later and pick something up if I get hungry. I'll see you all later."

Pyrrha made to stand when he moved away but it was Nora who caught her wrist in one hand. The exuberant girl shook her head meaningfully, and with a sigh, Pyrrha slouched back down. The redhead didn't look thrilled with not being able to help, but at least she had the presence of mind to not chase after him when he clearly wanted to be alone.

Ren and Nora will look after him. They're good teammates and it's clear those two know what's going on. I guess I can be a friend and keep Ruby away. Her usual cheery attitude is probably the last thing he needs right now.

"Come on, Rubes," she laughed and stood up. "Didn't you want to show me that new modification you had in mind for your baby?"

The sacrifices she made… sometimes they were too big, even for her. Ruby's face went slack for a moment, before – like the sun rising in the morning – her eyes began to sparkle and she clutched her hands before her. "Really!?" she cried, "You won't put it off? You'll come and see!?"

Ugh… Ruby could be cute when she was enthusiastic, but engineering and maintenance was one task even a thousand handsome supermodels couldn't make interesting. What made it worse was how Ruby turned into the female personification of Oobleck mixed with Port when she started talking about them. Weiss had made the mistake of encouraging it once, and even now, the white-haired girl had started to lean away.

"Sure," Yang sighed, already well-aware neither Blake nor Weiss would rescue her from this. You better appreciate this, bucko.

/-/

It was later on in the evening when Yang found herself cornered outside her dorm. Cornered was perhaps a strong term, since Pyrrha had been waiting by the door, clearly nervous – and her eyes said she'd bolt if Yang made an aggressive move. Still, emotional cornering was as good as physical, and with a sigh she walked over and asked what was wrong.

"It's Jaune," Pyrrha said – not that the words surprised Yang in the slightest. "He's still outside and… well, I don't know what to do."

Yang sighed and rubbed a hand through her hair. She took a quick look into the dorm, in time to see Ruby attempting to convince Weiss to let her get out of homework and Blake reading. With one hand, she tugged Pyrrha a little further down the corridor. "You know what an inheritance means, right?" she asked once they were out of hearing range.

"Of course I do. Jaune doesn't have any family – he's a White. For there to be an inheritance, it means someone has died. It also means he gained some family…"

"And lost it," Yang finished.

"Indeed."

Silence grew between the two of them and Yang suffered the most for it. Unused to dealing with such, she kicked her feet against the floor and wondered what it was Pyrrha wanted from her. If she'd already seen what it was Jaune was going through, what was she confused about?

"I tried to offer my support," Pyrrha eventually said. "He wouldn't accept it."

That didn't surprise her, and Yang felt a wave of sympathy, not for Jaune – but for the girl opposite her. "I'm not surprised," she said, as softly as she could. "Pyrrha, you need to understand, if he's just lost someone then the last thing he wants right now is sympathy."

Pyrrha looked up towards her, eyes wide and confused. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I'm being honest with my feelings… I genuinely want to help him. Why would he not want that?"

Yang rubbed a hand through her hair and tried to think of the best way to put it. "It's not like that. It's… look, how do I explain? Jaune has probably just lost someone, right? He feels bad, he's grieving and he's trying to come to terms with what's happened." Pyrrha nodded along to her words, clearly listening. "It's the point in someone's life when they're at their most vulnerable. Emotions are high, they're confused and have no idea what to think or feel. The last thing they want on top of that is someone who doesn't understand what it's like offering their sympathy."

"But I do know what it's like," Pyrrha argued, "I know what it's like to los-"

"As do I," Yang interrupted. "We both know what it's like, so does Weiss and Ruby does as well – but we don't know what it's like for Jaune. Your grief was different to mine, and I'll bet mine is different to what he feels. Everyone is their own person, Pyrrha. No two situations are the same, even if they look like it at first. I guess that's why families grieve together," she added, "They both know the person who passed away, so they both feel upset about the same thing. It lets them come together and rely on one another, but unless you're that close, I doubt he'll want to open up about it."

Pyrrha seemed to realise that – and maybe she'd known deep inside as well. She leaned back against the wall and rubbed at her forehead. "What are we supposed to do, then?" she asked. "The whole team wants to help him. I want to help him."

"The only thing you can do is give him time." She knew it wasn't what Pyrrha wanted to hear, even before the girl's face scrunched up. "Acceptance is the final stage of grief, that moment where you can finally start to heal. I bet when he comes to accept the loss, he'll love you all for being there to support him, but you have to let him accept it first. You need to give him time to actually come to terms with it."

"You know a lot about this…"

Yang shrugged. "I have experience. When mine and Ruby's mother died, our entire family fell apart. My father became almost catatonic, Ruby cried, and I didn't know how to handle my own emotions. It was left to our uncle to look after us all. I guess I picked some bits up from all the research he did into it to try and look after us all."

"I'm sorry I asked."

"It's fine," Yang said, waving it off. "If I didn't want to talk about it, I wouldn't. It was a long time ago anyway."

"If you're sure…?" Pyrrha still sounded uncertain. She really was too kind. "Do you mind if I ask then… how did you personally come to terms with your grief?"

"I didn't get a chance to… dad was out for the count and Ruby needed me to be strong… and so, I was. I buried myself in looking after my little sister and filling the shoes Summer left behind."

"That sounds sad…"

Yang tried her hardest not to squirm. It wasn't easy dealing with the abject sympathy, even less so when it was something over ten years ago. "It honestly wasn't all that bad," she said, "I was so focused on doing jobs and looking after her that I didn't have time to cry and feel sad. Ruby helped distract me… she gave me something to do, someone to invest myself in. Even while I was helping her, she helped me in return. We looked after one another and when dad recovered, he looked after us too." Things hadn't been perfect, but that hadn't been terrible either. "You and Jaune will be the same too Pyrrha, I promise. Once he has some time to think things through and accept what's happened, he's going to need people to help him out."

"I think I understand," Pyrrha smiled. "Thank you Yang, I… sometimes it feels like I keep coming to you for advice. I don't know why."

"Me neither," she grinned, "I'm not usually known as the advice fairy."

The redhead laughed, and Yang relaxed as she caught the happy tone in it. Happiness was good, if only because once Jaune came back to them, he ought to be surrounded by it. Nora would help there too, she was sure.

"I'll wait for Jaune to come to us, then," Pyrrha said once her laughter came to a close. "Thank you for speaking with me Yang. I'm sorry if anything I said brought up unpleasant memories."

"Memories of Summer are never unpleasant. Don't sweat it."

Pyrrha nodded and walked away after a short goodbye. Yang waved after her, until the redhead left the corridor entirely, no doubt to pass the message back to her team so they could be there for him. The smile fell from her face once she was alone, replaced with a frown. Since when does everyone come to me for advice like this? First Ruby and now Pyrrha… am I supposed to be the expert analysis on him or something?

Really, she didn't know the guy that well anyway. They'd met barely a day or two before everyone else had, and it wasn't like she'd done anything more than have a few drinks with him.

Well… that wasn't entirely true. The two of them fought together against the Malachites, and she'd gone out with him once or twice after school too. That was more than she'd done with most guys, especially after only knowing them for a couple of weeks. Jaune, though… they just clicked. Not in the romantic sense, thank goodness, but rather some easy camaraderie. They both considered Ruby an adorable little sister, they both liked to go out and drink, they both wanted to become hunters… the list went on but they just tended to have the same views on most things.

Unbidden, her eyes drifted in the direction of Beacon's gardens. Don't be an idiot… you just told Pyrrha the best thing to do was leave him be.

It was the correct advice. She hadn't lied.

"Forget it." She sighed and turned to walk back to her dorm. "He'll be fine. He's a strong guy and he has his whole team to back him up. He doesn't need nor want my interference." It wasn't like it was raining either. The evenings were pretty warm and the fresh air would do him good. He would be fine…

Her hand paused on the door handle.

He would be fine.

Lilac eyes clenched shut.

"God damn it," Yang growled and turned back.

/-/

Jaune bit back a frustrated growl as he heard someone approach. His eyes clenched shut and did his best to remain as still as possible. There wasn't a hope in his mind that they hadn't come for him… not when he was sat in a small copse of trees on the outskirts of Beacon. No one would have stumbled on him… they'd have had to look. The person sat down behind him, the sound of them settling into the grass about all he could make out.

They didn't speak. There were no questions and no words. Only silence, mixed with the occasional sound of breath that wasn't his.

Blue eyes opened as he stared at the trees before him. "I don't want to talk about it," he said tiredly. "I thought I told you that before?"

"I'm not here to talk."

Yang? He almost turned around in surprise but stopped himself at the last second. For a moment he'd assumed it was Pyrrha again. Then again, he'd as good as snapped at her the last time… he doubted she'd want to come and talk to him after that. "Than what are you here for?" he asked.

She hummed but didn't answer immediately. Instead, she leaned back – to press her back against his. If she felt how stiff his muscles were, she didn't say anything. "I just wanted some fresh air," she eventually said, "Sometimes it can be a bit much to be stuck in a room with three other girls. A girl needs her peace and quiet."

She was lying. He didn't need his experience as Crimson to tell him that… hell, an idiot could have guessed why she was really there, but at least her approach was better than Pyrrha's battering ram of worry. He sighed and lowered his face into his arms, propped atop bent knees. "I said I don't want to talk about it."

"I heard you," she whispered, "and I won't ask you to, either. Just let me sit here for a bit. I won't talk unless you talk to me. I promise."

Another explosive sigh left him, but irritation aside, he couldn't think of any reason to get rid of her. He didn't have the energy or the will to get up and move elsewhere. Honestly, all he wanted to do was lay down and forget the day had ever happened. His eyes drifted down to his new weapon once more, discarded in the grass like trash. I wish I'd never even gotten this stupid sword.

Yang leaned a little heavier on him. He glanced back over his shoulder but caught only a face full of golden hair. She wasn't watching, and in fact seemed focused on Beacon itself. He wanted to shout at her to go away, to fuck off and leave him alone. The thought of it was cathartic… even more so if she would turn and punch him in the face. His hands twitched for a moment at the thought of a fight.

He didn't have the energy.

He leaned back instead, refusing to acknowledge that her heat warmed his body… that her hair was soft against his neck or that he could smell the faint scent of peaches on her. It didn't feel right to admit any of that, even if it felt comfortingly familiar.

"I guess you want to know what happened," he said.

"Not really."

His shoulders twitched. She must have felt it through her back but he couldn't control his surprise. "Then what do you want?"

"Just to sit next to a friend."

There was nothing he could say to that. He anger disappeared as quickly as it came on, replaced by doubt and a little guilt as well. He shook it off and looked back off towards the forest, content to leave her resting against him. So long as she didn't expect him to talk, it was fine.

It was perhaps ironic, then, that as one minute became five and five became ten, that it was he who broke the silence. "My name is Jaune Arc…"

"Arc?" Yang tested it, and although he looked for it, there was no interest, sympathy or pity in her voice… just idle curiosity. "Jaune Arc… it's not a bad name to be honest. I think it wouldn't have flowed well if it was something long-winded like Jaune Winterton-Smith. I like it."

"It'll take some getting used to…"

"You don't have to use it. Only you know it, so you could jus-"

"I'm going to use it," he cut her off, voice firm. She shut up immediately. "I owe it to them to use it." He waited for her to ask who, but she stuck to her promise and said nothing at all. He wasn't sure whether that disappointed him or not, but it did give him the confidence he needed to continue. "Apparently my mother and father were called Nicholas and Juniper Arc. It's ironic because my mother was called Juniper White before that. It's almost like I used her maiden name."

Yang tilted her head back, so that her hair rested against the back of his head. It was soft and he found himself leaning back into it.

"I also had sisters too," he whispered, "Most of them were older but I had a younger one too, and apparently my mother was pregnant with another. Seriously, seven sisters… seven… can you even imagine that?"

"Having one is enough for me," Yang chuckled. "I think if I had seven Ruby's, I'd go insane. The cookie bill would be through the roof."

The honest terror in her voice made him laugh; almost hysterically so, in fact. He buried his face back down in his arms as his shoulders shook. "I would have been the only boy too," he said, "I bet I'd have grown up wrapped around their fingers. If only…" his eyes clenched shut, "if only…"

He couldn't continue. His voice cut off and he took great, gasping breaths as he tried to calm himself down. There was no desire to cry… no burning behind his eyes. He didn't know them, even if they were family, and it was that which hurt more than anything else. He appreciated Yang not asking him to continue, however. She hummed a quiet tune to herself… no, not to herself. He could recognise it as some kid's lullaby and no doubt she unconsciously did it as a way to try and calm him down.

"Do you remember me talking about my family before?" he asked. "I think I said something about how I hoped they were dead because I'd rather have parents who died loving me than some drunks who abandoned me."

"I remember," she said. "It made sense to me."

"Me too. It made sense at the time but… I wish I could change that now. Ozpin said they don't know what caused it but the marks on the walls suggested Grimm. My father was a huntsman but the numbers were clearly too much. No one survived. The house was ruined."

"You survived."

"I survived," he acknowledged. "Ozpin doesn't know how but he said it was possible me and my oldest sister were outside the house at the time of the attack. That's the only reason he could come up with since there was no way my father would have left us on our own otherwise. The information… no one knows anything for sure since there's no one who remembers it."

"Your sister…?"

Jaune gripped his head between his hands. "They found her at the gates of Vale," he whispered. "No one knows how she made it. Ozpin said if she walked it, the journey must have been incredible, but it's possible she unlocked a semblance or something. Either way, she carried me to Vale and then died with me in her hands. She got me to safety… and it killed her." Just the thought of that was something between incredible and heart-breaking. How was he so important to her that she'd been willing to die for him? Ozpin had said Sapphire Arc would have only been eleven years old. It was insane. "Do you…" he swallowed, "I don't know how she could have done that. She was eleven."

"People do strange things for love," Yang said. "You always hear stories of people surpassing their physical abilities if someone is in danger. I'd fight to the death for Ruby."

He could well believe it, and perhaps she was right and that was the answer. The problem was, he couldn't remember any of it. Ozpin suggested trauma, but the brutal truth might have just been that he was too young to recall it.

Too young to recall the family that loved him or the sister that died for him.

It seemed like such a poor way to repay them.

"I always dreamed that if I found out I had a family that loved me, I'd be happy… even if they were dead. I don't feel happy, though. I feel… I feel empty, unsatisfied… guilty. It doesn't feel good at all. It feels terrible." His father loved him. His mother loved him. He had sisters who loved him… and they were all dead, while he got to live. And to top it all off, despite the sacrifices they'd all made – he'd lived his entire life not even knowing their names. "I don't want this," he groaned.

Yang nudged her back against his. "What do you want?"

The question surprised him but the answer came immediately, as selfish as it was. "I want to forget everything about today," he said. "I want to forget I ever had a meeting with the headmaster and what was said."

"Okay."

The weight against his back vanished as Yang stood up. He would have fallen if not for her legs keeping him upright. "What?" he asked, looking up into the hand she held down for him.

"You said you wanted to forget, right? We can go to the Oyster and drink. If nothing else, you'll be too drunk to remember whatever happened anyway."

"Drink?" he scoffed and slapped her hand away. "I don't think getting smashed is going to help me get over this."

"It won't," she admitted. "That's not what it's for." He glanced up at her, but it was to see that there was no pity in her eyes. No sympathy, either. She gave him the same look she always did… a little teasing, a little curious – but most importantly, she looked at him like she enjoyed being around him. Her hand was back before him too, and she didn't look angry that he'd rejected it the first time.

Something heavy built up in the back of his throat. Shit… not now, and not like this. He hadn't even felt the urge to cry once and now she was going to get him started just by not giving a crap about his dead family? That didn't make any sense!

"My uncle drinks a lot," Yang said. "He says it helps him heal when he feels down."

"Alcohol doesn't help. It's a crutch."

Yang smiled. "You use a crutch when your leg is broken," she pointed out with infallible logic. "Qrow says time heals all wounds, but that there's no reason to be in pain while it does. If you have a headache, you take a painkiller. This is nothing more."

Something to kill the pain, if only for a moment… I could… I could get behind that.

"I can drink on my own," he said as one, final attempt to push her away. "I don't need you there for that."

"No one should have to drink alone."

He looked down at the ground. "I don't need your pity."

"Pity? I think you're mistaken bucko… If you go drinking on your own, you'll look like a loser with no friends. I'm here to protect your street cred. You can pay me back later. I accept eternal gratitude, massage and religious worship."

His shoulders shook. It was so stupid… she was stupid. Him too…

But he reached up to clasp her hand, regardless.

"Don't let me look like a lonely drunk," he whispered, not meeting her eyes. They weren't the words he wanted to say, but those wouldn't come out. He thought she understood, though, for he felt her shoulder bump against his.

"I won't." Yang promised. "Come on… let's have a drink to the most badass eleven-year-old girl I've ever heard of. If it weren't for her, I wouldn't have my friend here right now."

"Yeah," he gasped. His voice was thick with emotion. "I can… I'll drink to that."

/-/

Ruby's hands wrung together nervously as she looked down at the scroll once more. Yang still hadn't come back last night and it was now seven in the morning on a Saturday. Her sister could be crazy like that sometimes, but she always responded to messages… always! She'd also never failed to come back.

"Ruby, I'm sure she's fine," Blake said, for what must have been the thousandth time. "You know what she's like better than us. Yang's strong enough to look after herself and it's not like she doesn't go out every now and then."

Ruby appreciated the support, she really did, but this was way different from what normally happened. She pulled on her outfit and pushed past Blake to get to the door. She would find Yang herself if she had to, but when she yanked open the door and charged out, it was only to crash into Nora and bring them both to the ground.

"Hi Ruby!" Nora greeted, apparently not at all bothered by their rather sudden meeting. "Good to see you too. Have you seen Jaune?"

"Wha?"

Pyrrha leaned down and pulled her back up and onto her feet. "Jaune didn't come back last night," she explained, eyes filled with worry, "He's not responding to calls either… I-we were hoping you knew where he was."

Ruby shook her head. "I haven't seen him since yesterday but Yang is missing too!"

"We should spread out and try to find them. Ren and Nora, if you two check the Bullhead docks, try and see if they took out one or came bac-"

"Found them," Blake called from a nearby room.

Pyrrha and Ruby paused to blink at one another before, as one, the entire group rushed towards Blake's voice. They pushed into the common room almost at the same time, bouncing against one another as they squeezed through the door and came to see Blake stood with an amused expression, looking down at one of the couches.

Ruby gasped when she saw what lay there. Her surprise soon turned to something else, however, as she smothered her giggles behind one hand.

Well, Jaune and Yang weren't in trouble, it seemed – though he might disagree when they woke up and found they'd slept with one another. Ruby would have panicked were it not for the fact both were fully clothed. To make matters even less romantic, Yang had one arm outstretched and her elbow firmly placed in Jaune's open mouth.

"So irresponsible," Weiss sighed, hands on her hips.

"I suppose they had a little too much and couldn't find their way back to our dorms," Blake chuckled. "By that point they probably collapsed on the first comfortable thing to catch their eyes. Should we wake them up?"

"No." It was Pyrrha who spoke. The redhead's eyes were locked onto her partner's form, but she looked almost pleased… or was that relieved? "It's a weekend," she whispered, "We should let them rest."

"They'll have one hell of a hangover when they wake up," Ren said.

"We'll have some painkillers ready for them," Pyrrha smiled. She reached down to a blanket that had been discarded on the floor. It looked like someone had found them, felt some pity and draped it across them. Yang tossed and turned in her sleep, however, and had probably pushed it off. Come to think of it, that was probably when she'd elbowed him in the face too. How had he not woken up? Pyrrha settled the blanket back around the two of them.

Ruby rolled her eyes and helped extricate her sister's arm from her Jaune's face too. "They almost look cute," she said once she was done. With Yang now in a more normal position, her face was pressed against Jaune's chest, one of his arms wrapped about her waist as she claimed the spot nestled between him and the back of the sofa. Honestly, most of what could be seen was just the vast amount of hair she had, bunched up behind and over her like a natural blanket.

There was a soft click from nearby, and Ruby looked over in time to see Blake take a picture of the scene on her scroll.

"Aww," Ruby cooed and went for her own, "You're right. I need a picture too. It's so cute."

Blake blinked. "Cute? Oh right, yeah… sure…"

"Blake… you can't blackmail my sister."

"Not even if she starts with the puns again?"

"Not even then."

There was another click as Weiss took a snap too. "What?" the heiress asked defensively when Ruby stared at her. "She deserves it for all the `Weiss-cream` comments!"

Ignorance was bliss, apparently… and while Ruby growled and wrestled the scroll out of her partner's hand and Team JNPR laughed at them, Yang and Jaune slumbered peacefully on.

Everyone handles grief differently, so sometimes it's hard to write. In mine, I've never wanted or needed sympathy from people and at least like to be alone to come to terms with it for a few hours.

In a way the chapter brings back memories. I had a reputation for sleeping with girls at uni... and in the totally not-way you're thinking. I honestly just kept falling asleep cuddled with female friends I never had sex with. I remember my friends being all "Wow man, that must be frustrating" when all I could think was "Really? But it's the best sleep ever."

Next Chapter: 28th February

P a treon . com (slash) Coeur