All Stations, All Stations, this is MarchWarden I regret to inform you that Home is probably dead, unless a miracle happens. However this story is the heart of Home recontextualized and spiritually revamped. I hope that you enjoy. OVER
Autumn's house was the last stop. She lived deep in the suburbia of Mantle, far away from public transportation that could speed them on their way, so Jaune walked with her.
And as he walked, he talked with her. About her day at school, about what she would do when she got home, and really about whatever was on her mind.
Today she was talking about huntsmen.
"Didju, didju, know, Mr. Arc? The Huntsmen were founded after the Great War, about seventy years ago, and that there have only been three generations of huntsmen since then. That's pretty cool, right? And, and they were founddeded by a guy named Alexey Ermine? That's pretty cool right?"
The torrent of words stopped long enough for Jaune to get a word in edgewise.
"Yeah, it's cool. Did you know that Alexey had some help founding the modern iteration of huntsmen?" Jaune said.
"No, I'm only in third grade!" Autumn explained, petulant.
"Do you want to know about them?"
"Yes!"
Jaune laughed: "Alexey Ermine was a part a group of three other people like him, one from each different kingdom except Menagerie, and they helped him to make the rules for huntsmen. Their names were King Oz, Anika Crimson, and Desert Varnish. Kids in the other kingdoms learn about them."
"Yeah! King Oz, Anika Crimson, and Desert Varnish, and Alexey, (some of those people have weird names) and they made rules for being a huntsman, that every huntsman has to follow, except the Specialists, because they are special. And the rules are: don't kill, you can't be part of an army, you can't kill people, and you can't stay in one place for a long time." Autumn explained joyfully.
"Yes," Jaune said, curious about where she was going with this, if she was going anywhere.
"Which means you will have to leave soon." Autumn finished, a little triumphant, and a little sad. "Were you going to leave without telling us, Mr. Arc?"
Jaune was a little surprised by her conclusion, but, like all things third grader, he took it in stride, "No. I'll probably tell you when I have to leave, if I have the time. I'm on kind of a special assignment right now, so I don't know when exactly that will be."
"Oh," Autumn observed succinctly, and adjusted the straps on her backpack as she walked, "Is being a huntsman hard?"
"Sometimes. A lot of times in ways you don't expect." Jaune answered.
"Do you think I could do it?" Autumn asked.
"If you wanted to." Jaune said, "I bet you could do anything."
"That's cool." Autumn said, glancing down at Jaune's feet, and changing her pace to match his. "Is it like school?"
"Sometimes," Jaune said, "But you do have to get good grades in order to become a huntsman."
"Mom says that too. I'm going to tell her that you think I can do it." Autumn said.
"Your house is coming up pretty soon." Jaune commented.
"Yeah."
And they walked in silence in the crisp air for the next few minutes, speaking only to cross the relatively big Elm and Darmond streets.
Autumn lived in a relatively rich neighborhood, set back in one of the municipal parks, with a big artificial lake in the center. The trees spoke in the breeze today, and played tricks in the shadows with the sun's rays, but the air smelled for all the world like there was a freeze coming on, if one could smell past the weak odor of dust processing that permanently graced the air.
Autumn said goodbye once they got on her street, but Jaune followed her home, like his mission demanded.
After this he would usually make the thirty-minute trek back to public transportation and fly back up to Atlas for dinner.
But today he didn't want to leave the serenity of this park. He had never really taken the time to explore it before, and besides, who would miss him if he did take some alone time, if they needed to know where he was, he had his scroll on him. They could call.
The strong scent of citrus pervaded everything.
Ren rubbed his knuckles against his nose a couple times, but only managed to get the shaving cream stuck farther up. It burned, and he had to stop from sneezing.
"Remember when?" Nora's voice sang from the shower.
Ren picked up his razor and ran it down his cheek in one smooth motion, then lifted it and repeated the motion, observing himself carefully in the yellow light of the bathroom mirror.
"I was young so were you, and time stood still. And love was all we knew."
Ren hummed along as best he could.
"You were the first, so was I, we made love and then you cried, Remember when?"
He moved the razor in a quick flicking motion, splashing shaving cream into the washbowl, before rinsing it down with a quick spray of water.
"Remember When… we vowed the vows and walked the walk, and gave our hearts?"
"We made the start, and it was hard. We lived and learned life through curves, there was joy, there was hurt, Remember when?" Ren sang back before turning his attention back to shaving.
"Old ones die, and new were born, and life was changed, disassembled, rearranged." Nora returned.
The door opened.
Ren put his shaver down, and Nora stopped singing.
"Hey, it's Yang, I'm looking for Jaune, he's late for something Ruby had scheduled with him and Ironwood. They were gonna talk nerdy team stuff, and I wondered if you guys knew where he was." The voice announced from the crack in the door.
"Call him," Ren said coolly, "He's a huntsman, he probably hasn't gotten in too much trouble."
"Yeah, I already have Blake doing that, but thank you! And good luck on your date tonight!" Yang closed the door.
Ren shook his head and turned back to shaving.
Weiss sat in the back of the rideshare, smoothly riding through suburban Mantle, genuinely confused.
It wasn't uncharacteristic of Jaune to lose track of time, but it was something that had been happening less and less, and his team, and even he himself, had assured RWBY that it was something that they had dealt with the cause of.
It was unlike Jaune to lie.
She wasn't uninformed about Jaune's brooding habit. Ruby had filled them in on it, but he hadn't done it for months, and he seemed to have genuinely overcome the problem shortly before the airship heist.
This time had to be something different, but for the life of her, Weiss couldn't think of a reason for him to go running off into the blue like this.
The rideshare stopped, and Weiss got out, having paid him through the app. Outside the car the wind roared, pulling a new sheet of low grey clouds across the sky, hiding Atlas in the coming storm. His scroll signal said that he was somewhere on the land dam of the artificial lake she was speed walking towards.
Not a lot of people were still outside right now, and those who were were seeking shelter from the mercurial weather. Weiss had no trouble finding the only person at the stony base of the land dam.
Weiss descended the steep grassy hill carefully, her wedges forcing her to walk in zigzags.
Only when she arrived at the base of the hill did she see Jaune in full detail.
He crouched in the low water just off the gravel path at the base of the hill, reaching around for something, before suddenly standing, pausing a moment, and throwing a rock with laser focus. The rock skipped three times and then sank. The front of his armor was speckled with the shells of sunflower seeds, and even now he uncarefully spat out a mouthful.
Jaune ran a dripping hand through his hair, as he stared thoughtfully at the place where his rock sank.
If Weiss wasn't concerned, she would probably be disgusted.
"Jaune! Ruby is in a meeting right now, waiting for you, and I find you here skipping rocks and eating sunflower seeds?!" Weiss announced as she crunched towards him on the gravel path.
The knight didn't even have the grace to look surprised.
"The sunflower seeds were Marrow's idea; he gave them to me this morning." Jaune explained unhelpfully.
"I don't care." Weiss said, a little shocked at her own anger, "What are you doing here?"
"Skipping rocks and eating sunflower seeds." Jaune shrugged, squatting down again for another rock.
Weiss could feel a shriek building up inside her. There was no one else around. No one to hear it but him. Only he would feel her frustration.
"Why are you skipping rocks and eating sunflower seeds?!"
"Because they help me think. Not the sunflower seeds so much, but the rocks, yeah."
Jaune pulled a large round rock out of the water around his toes. The end of Pyrrha's sash drooled water down the side of his jeans.
This ridiculous scene calmed Weiss down a little.
"What are you thinking about?" Weiss asked, trying to sound interested enough that he would pay attention to her.
"Stealing an airship." Jaune threw the rock. It landed about twenty feet away with a splash, "It slipped."
Weiss could sense Jaune wasn't done explaining himself.
He pulled another two rocks from the ground each larger than the last one. One of them was nearly square.
"Forging transcripts." He threw one of the rocks, "Wanting to kill Cinder." He threw the other rock. Both rocks hit the water with a sploosh within less than a second of each other.
"Why?" Weiss asked, now genuinely interested. She was walking closer to him. He was a battle-brother to her. Even in his frenzied state she knew he wouldn't hurt her. He couldn't dream of trying.
"I don't know." Jaune muttered, reaching down for more rocks.
Weiss felt cold water encircle her feet before she knew what she was doing.
Jaune stopped abruptly before he was able to put his hand in the water.
Then tiny hands under his armpits pulled him standing again.
"Forget about the meeting Jaune, why are you out here… thinking about killing Cinder of all things?" Weiss asked concern showing in her voice.
"Don't worry about me." Jaune said, hanging his head, and refusing to look Weiss in the eye, "I'm not moping, or at least I wasn't until you came over. I was just thinking…" He turned and walked to the gravel path, and lay down on the sharply inclined grass that determined the other border of the path. Weiss followed him out of the water.
"I'm not who I was, I'm not who I wanted to be. I'll never be like my dad, or like my grandfather. If I'm lucky I might just turn out like my great grandfather." Jaune sat up, "I lied to get into Beacon, I besmirched my own honor so that maybe, just maybe, I could make it up later, but that isn't how that works, and I knew it, but I ignored it. I have worked since then, and have built back to some kind of moral standard I can be proud of, but…" Jaune threw himself back onto the hillside, and fell to muttering.
"Tell me Jaune. I'm sure it helps to get it out." Weiss said cautiously.
"I wanted to kill her. I want to kill her. I want to do it so badly. I made you steal an airship to get away from her, but I can't escape her. And I am sorry. I want to be free of this hellfire. I want Pyrrha to rest in peace."
Weiss watched her friend suffer for a little while longer. "I am sorry."
Jaune shook his head. "Never mind, you can't forgive me, and I still have stuff to do." He stood and slung his backpack back on.
"I can help you carry the guilt." Weiss said before he turned away. "I am not free of the stain of hate. I have hated many people. I hate my father to this day."
Jaune raised his eyes to her face, and she could see no understanding in them.
"Skip a rock, Jaune, the biggest you can find. Just skip one rock." Weiss begged, a glint of understanding in her eyes.
Jaune's eyes lit up in response. He understood.
He walked back out to the water, squatted down, and searched for almost a minute, before standing, holding a triangular flagstone bigger than his head. He grabbed it by the corner and threw it with a vicious sidearm.
It hit the water once and bounced, and it bounced and bounced and bounced again, supported by Weiss' glyphs to the opposite shore.
Jaune could hear the clatter from where he stood.
But he did not see it.
"She didn't take me, Jaune, she didn't take me." Weiss comforted as Jaune wrapped her slim form with soaking arms, his frigid, gauntleted hands holding her to him felt like claws. But she didn't mind.
Her arms could barely fit around his armored chest, but she didn't mind.
She derived all her warmth from the kiss he pressed to her cheek.
"Together?" she whispered in his ear.
"Together." He whispered back.
"You don't have to be a slave; you can be free." She whispered.
"Show me."
"Only if you show me."
I really enjoyed writing this. I hope that you tell me what you enjoyed about reading it. I'm so sorry for the hiatus. I will be hanging around more now. Thank You for Reading. MarchWarden OUT