Woot and here's my next submission for 9 days titled stars hope everyone enjoys oh and just to warn people this starts off pretty angsty. Hope everyone enjoys the chapter and the song theme for this fic is Comatose by Skillet.

Jaune groaned in exertion as he continued to train, hearing Pyrrha's recorded message play over and over again as he set it to loop using her words as guidance wanting to be better. He refused to stop swinging his sword even as the skin on his hands were rubbed raw and his lungs burned, he kept going refusing to stop.

If only he was stronger, he was a fake a fraud the only got into Beacon because he had faked his transcripts. Someone else should have gone to Beacon, someone who was trained and that they wouldn't have needed to cheat their way in. They would have saved Pyrrha and the others. everyone would have been better off with them there instead of him.

Hitting the tree again Jaune roared straining his throat with a mix of sorrow and a rage fuelling him as he had long ago stopped swinging his sword into the air. Tonight, a tree was his victim and as he hacked away at it, he began to lose his form unable to stop Jaune was simply a spectator to what was happened as his body went on auto drive just letting out all his rage and sadness out.

Not even thinking about what he had learnt through training Jaune simply used his sword as a bat striking the tree with all his strength which was what he continued to do until his sword was knocked out of his trembling hands because he had hit the tree at an awkward angle making his wrist bend violently. Grunting Jaune ignored the pain in his wrist not even bothering to pick up his sword instead he continued to attack the tree with his sword and the rest of his body.

By the time Jaune's body had ran out of energy he was soaked to the bone in sweat and his whole body felt like it was on fire, collapsing against the battered tree he panted in exhaustion feeling his stinging knuckles drip with blood as he did his best not to move his legs feeling his knee jolt with pain from each movement, damaged from him trying to use it to destroy the tree.

And that was how Ruby found him curled up in a ball with tears running down his face as he shivered even though it was a warm summer night, when she looked him her lip quivered hating that he had kept all this bottled up. She hated that he felt like he couldn't go to them for help she was a bad friend.

She didn't stay still long though quickly making her way over to him she sat down on the floor next to him before gently pulling him into a soft hug as she let him break down against her chest hugging her tightly.

"You can't keep hurting yourself like this, please stop." Ruby pleaded to him sighing sadly as she ran her hands through his hair doing her best to calm him down as he slowly began to stop shaking.

"I need to get stronger before anyone else gets hurt." Jaune told her weakly looking up to her in a bout of stubbornness.

"If you train like this you won't be able to protect anyone," Ruby told him bluntly making him frown as the two of them looked each other in the eyes neither of them giving into the other "you'd just get yourself hurt," she told him her voice wobbly as she thought of how much they had lost since Vytal "promise me you won't throw your life away we need you Jaune." she pleaded to him her eyes beginning to water.

Seeing how worried he made her Jaune felt a wave of guilt hit him making him sigh, "I promise, there are a lot of people here that I can't leave behind." Jaune told her feeling like he was resting too much of his weight on her so he leaned back against the tree pulling Ruby against him.

"Good because we, I can't do this without you." Ruby told him resting her head against his shoulder as they looked out into the sky.

"I'm sure you'd be fine without me your amazing Ruby." Jaune told her feeling like her presence would never fail to calm him down.

Not expecting the compliment Ruby blushed deeply looking away from Jaune "the stars are really nice out today" she told him loudly pointing at the stars as she hoped to change the subject.

"Yeah, you sure do look pretty" Jaune said looking at her instead of the stars.

"what" Ruby asks blushing deeply making Jaune freeze as he blushed as well looking away from her.

"The stars" Jaune quickly tell her pointing at them "they're pretty" he tells her as Ruby rests her head on his shoulder not wanting to get up as they watched the stars together.

That was how Nora and Ren found them later fast asleep making the two of them smile doing their best to not be too loud Ren then quickly wrapped a blanket around the two of them before leaving the two of them alone to get some more sleep.