Chapter 4: And Then What?
"The best way to solve your problems is to create more problems until you are dead."
— 10 —
Jaune's fist hit Blake's face. Her Shadow clone faded to dust. Jaune didn't have time to react as Blake swung a leg behind his and shoved him forwards. He hit the ground hard. The glow in his eyes intensified, his body shimmering as he used the recoil of the bounce to launch himself back to his feet like one those toys meant for children to beat on.
He threw his shield into her face. Her Shadow caught it, launching her down into a crouch. Blake jumped into Jaune, using her sheath as a bludgeon to thwack him upside the face. His Aura came up a little too late, letting most of the impact knock the living piss out of him. It sent spit and a distressing amount of blood to go flying from his mouth.
"Jaune?!" she gasped, only for him to grab her collar and shoved her forwards. Before she knew it, she was falling onto her back, with him on top of her. She had a sudden, terrifying mental image of him land face-first into her chest. His grip slipping and hands landing somewhere way too erogenous.
Instead, he collapsed onto her, left hand on the right side of her collar, and the reverse true with his other hand. Putting all his weight on her carotid artery and vena cava. Choking her out even with her Aura. Blake started to see spots quickly.
She slapped the mat, yielding. And for another horrified moment, she imagined him loosening his grip, but keeping her pinned. Looking down from atop her. Her panting and looking back up at him, nearly helpless. A scene straight out of one of her romance novels. The ones Jaune had been reading just to mess with her. It would have almost been easier.
Instead, he rolled off her without giving it much thought to how close they'd just been. He stood and held a hand out to her to haul her to her feet. She accepted, the spots fading from her vision, and for a moment was oddly self-conscious of just how much bigger he was than her. Every time she fretted over something untoward happening, it never happened. During the hours sparring and practicing, Jaune had had plenty of chances to cop a feel and play it off as just training. She wouldn't have even been able to argue, exactly, but the problem hadn't happened.
He let out a breath, wiping the sweat off his brow. "How was that?"
Blake licked her lips. "You're a lot more of a grappler than a swordsman," she decided. "But you really need to work on getting your Aura up faster. How's your mouth?"
He spat out a mix of blood and saliva onto the floor. "Dad used to hit me worse."
This was the way Adam taught her to fight. Brutal and relentless. He'd been fast and deadly, but not able to take many solid hits. She'd focused on avoiding being hit, retaliating with blows from unexpected directions even if they didn't result in the most solid of connections. She wasn't sure if the way she fought was an emulation of him, or because their own weaknesses were similar. Jaune wasn't as fast, but he seemed tankier than her by a Menagerie mile. And not taking into account Aura, definitely a lot stronger than her. She had a worrying feeling that trying to practice with him would be playing against his natural strengths. Even if he was picking up on how to avoid being hit pretty quickly.
Speaking of.
Counting on him not predicting it, she flicked her wrist and twisted her weapon, Gambol Shroud, into its firearm state. She quickly fired a round towards his leg. Glowing with a no-color light, Jaune slid millimeters away from the bullet, and in the same motion had his revolver in her face, the barrel nuzzling against her cheek.
Blake nodded. "Better at dealing with bullets, too. That's progress."
Jaune holstered his sidearm and sighed. "I'm reckoning shooting people is the sort of escalation students don't usually slink to. Figuring it's finna be a more physical affair. Do Cardin even got a gun?"
She shrugged. "I think he's got something in his mace. I don't know a Huntsman who doesn't have a ranged option." A pause. "Except you, sort of. There's really nothing fancy in your sword?"
He walked over and picked up the shield he'd thrown at Blake. "Not near as I can tell me none." He activated his Aura. "Think I feel sommat in the sword when I try to flex my soul at it. Don't know what it means me none, though. Really hard to explain. More a vague instinct than tactile sensation."
"There's some devices that react to Aura," she said thoughtfully, eyes going over the training room in the gym basement. Not a popular destination on a Wednesday night, it seemed. "I forget what they're called, but they're expensive. Usually have something to do with Dust."
Jaune sheathed his sword in the shield, shaking his head. "Means nada a mi," he muttered. "Not like I can afford much in the way of Dust, anyhow."
"We could always steal from Weiss' stash," Blake suggested with an impish little expression.
"Oh, please. Have you seen her skin care shit? Weiss keeps her stuff locked up tighter than that chastity belt she calls a personality. Especially the stuff that used to be mine!"
Blake bit down a laugh. "Yeah, sorry about that. We just kind of assumed everything we didn't know was some kind of drug when we tossed your stuff out."
He gave her a flat look. "You really didn't know what cocoa butter was?"
She shrugged, looking away. But still smiling. "Do I look like the kind of girl who uses shaving butter?"
"It's also skin moisturizer!" he huffed. Then, running a hand over his face: "Only reason I'm working on this beard is because I kept nicking my face without the stuff. All Jaune had was a frickin' straight razor."
"Oh, Jaune talks about himself in the third person."
He blinked, like he realized he'd just made some gaff. "Jaune has always talked in the third person. It makes Jaune far more mysterious."
"Keep telling yourself that," she said with a friendly roll of the eyes.
"If Jaune lies hard enough, he'll believe himself. That makes all his lies true."
She walked up to him and flicked him on the forehead. He popped up his Aura to block any damage. "Don't quit your day job."
"Ow!" he said. "It ain't my fault. Gangsta rap made me do it. I'm highly impressionable."
"Oh sure," Blake said. "You ready to call it a night?"
He glared at her. "Yeah, yeah. Tomorrow we kick Cardin's ass."
"You really think we're ready?"
Jaune nodded, the back of his eyes glinting with Aura in that way he kept liking to do. "Worst come worst, better he kick my ass out there than you kicking my ass here."
She leaned towards him, resting her chin on her fist mockingly. "Aw, what's the matter? Embarrassed?"
He put a hand on her head and pushed her away, rolling his eyes with his whole body, exasperated. "Just because I'm a reformed gamer and no longer racist don't mean I can't have me my sexist pride."
"Gotcha. After we beat Cardin's bad habits out of him, I'll put you on the chopping block. Force feed you respect women juice."
"I liked it better when you only mocked me about things that didn't matter, like my drinking or dick size," he said with a frown, hands in his pockets.
Blake rested hands on her hips. "Only one of those things actually matter, Jaune," she said seriously.
"See, you say that, but you can tell a lot about a guy by his junk," he said, leaving the training mat. "Cardin has small PP energy. It's why he doesn't wear a cup to protect himself. So punch that as a first resort."
"Let me guess, you're the opposite."
Jaune smiled at her, shaking his head. "Nah, I got a medium PP. It talks to ghosts."
Blake wanted to stick her tongue out in disgust, but the line was so stupid she actually laughed. "I hate you."
He winked. "Feeling's mutual, girl."
— 11 —
This was the worst idea ever. Why the hell had she been convinced to do this? As she sat there at the cafeteria table, uncomfortably unable to eat her food or do anything but squirm in place, she watched as Jaune left her.
He placed his hand briefly on her shoulder, and winked. "Just be there when I need you."
And then her partner left to go deal with Cardin. It was just her at the table with Weiss, not really paying them any mind without Jaune bothering her, and Shamrock, just practicing more cards tricks in his frumpy old tophat. Neither of them seemed to care about what Blake and Jaune were about to do. And maybe that was for the best.
Blake felt as though she should start this, but had no real idea how to. She just kept thinking about Velvet, and the way she had yelled at her. All but called her out as being completely useless. A sympathetic face that couldn't do anything to really help. And as she watched Jaune walk up to Cardin, the same feeling crept through her veins. Giving her a feeling like she was sinking in quicksand, but somehow all internal.
They started by talking. Cardin had been doing something, distracted by running a comb through his short brown hair. He seemed a little surprised when Jaune showed up. Blake couldn't exactly catch most of the conversation. She just saw the way that Cardin held out his comb, and seemed to be discussing it. Something about his hair, she presumed.
"I wonder how it's like dealing with your hair when you have animal ears," Jaune said. And Blake felt a touch of indignation at the word animal. But she had to bite it down, pretending like she wasn't staring at the two boys talk intently.
"I don't know, man. Probably sucks. You ever notice how most hair care products say not for use by faunus?" Cardin laughed. "At the little shop on campus, the only stuff I've seen actually marketed for animal people is stuff that kills lice. I was half tempted to buy it when I touched that bunny girl."
Jaune nodded. "Honestly, that was kind of fucked up. It's pretty sad that you're bullying Velvet, a girl dying of ligma."
Cardin snorted. "Wait, who's Velvet?"
Seriously? Seriously? Cardin was making her life a living hell, he didn't even have the courtesy to know Velvet's name.
Then again, I didn't really know it either.
"Ligma balls!" Jaune said, and threw a sucker punch with his shield arm straight into Cardin's mouth. He enlarged the shield in the motion, the tip of the heater shield expanding and stabbed into the taller boy's cheek. Taken by complete surprise, he didn't bring up his Aura. Cardin stumbled backwards with a spurt of blood.
He swung his foot behind Cardin as he stumbled, reaching out to shove his face forwards and trip him onto his back. Exactly like she trained him to do.
But Cardin flared his Aura and braced himself. He didn't fall. Instead, he rammed a fist straight into Jaune's center of mass. Jaune nearly doubled over. Only reason he didn't was the way Cardin grabbed his shoulders to steady him, just so he could headbutt her partner. She wasn't sure whose blood was whose.
Jaune rammed his fist low into Cardin's groin. And at that point, Team CRDL, Cardin's men, finally took offense. Sitting on the far side of a nearby table, they stood up to help their team leader.
Oh shit, oh shit, oh double shit!
Blake looked around desperately for something to do. She felt so rooted in place. Not far away, Velvet was sitting with her team, glaring with an unreadable expression at the fight. Why couldn't Blake do something? Why did she want to run away and hide when her partner, Jaune, was about to get killed all because of her personal vendettas?
Jaune said he'd always be there for her. When he'd said it, she'd almost laughed it off. Just some alcoholic simp trying to ingratiate himself to the people who hated him. But seeing this here, as Jaune and Cardin exchanged bloody blows, she felt like a piece of shit.
Simp. Gods. That was one of Jaune's words she'd picked up. She was picking up a lot from him. And it felt like she wasn't giving anything back, from stupid words to actual actions that mattered.
Jaune was doing what he said he would for her. And she was just sitting here, terrified.
No.
She grabbed her tray of food and, with a flash of Aura precision, hurled it at team CRDL. The tray hit one of the boys in the face, the food going flying.
A saucy sandwich hit nearby Ruby, who'd been engrossed in a conversation with her sister, Yang. The little girl stood up sharply. "Who threw that? It was you!" And just threw her box of juice at CRDL, which missed and hit someone else. The new person reactively threw his food at someone else.
The words left Blake's mouth before she had time to regret ever thinking of them. "Food fight!"
"Food fight!" Ruby echoed, throwing something at someone else.
It took all of three seconds for the entire cafeteria to erupt into a warzone. Fruits, vegetables, and whatever a tomato technically was started flying. Sandwiches hit students. Styrofoam trays filled with ratatouille hit Weiss, who screamed with rage.
The sudden storm of food meant Team CRDL couldn't get to Cardin and Jaune without going through a sudden warzone. Blake even saw a few tables go flying.
But those were all three seconds Cardin had to wail on Jaune. Her partner had gotten a few good hits, but Cardin was big.
Blake found her legs and dove forwards, cartwheeling through the hail of cafeteria debris to land beside Jaune. Cardin looked at her with surprise as he was about to bring his mace down on Jaune. She smiled, all teeth, as she grabbed Jaune and activated her Semblance. His weapon hit where they'd been a second ago, shattered the shadow clone of her and her partner.
"Took your time," Jaune mumbled, and spat out blood.
Unlike Jaune and Cardin, she didn't usually carry her weapon on her while in school uniform. Most students kept those in their rocket lockers. But today, she and Jaune had come prepared. She took out Gambol Shroud and extended the whip.
Jaune grabbed it without thinking, and Blake jumped to the side. Even through the hail of food, she knew how to avoid a hit. Adam had taught her that much. Cardin didn't seem to know who to try to kill. Focusing on her was his mistake. She swung her weapon, and the whip launched Jaune straight into Cardin's ugly mug shield-first.
He dropped his mace. Jaune picked it up and swung it straight into the boy's side. Cardin doubled over. With an Aura-assisted flip, Blake kicked him right under the jaw. Spit and blood went flying. She could almost see the stars in his eyes.
From the far side of the cafeteria, someone had already built a fort out of tables and chairs. "I'm queen of the castle!" a girl challenged to the entire wreck of a room. The Mistrali looking boy near her looked like he wanted to just up and die from embarrassment.
Blake couldn't blame her. Seconds were all it took for this entire place to go to the dogs. Which, now that she thought of it, was probably another anti-faunus term. Not that it mattered. The chaos had already consumed the entire student body, from the seniors down to the freshmen like her.
She was only too glad it meant no one really noticed how serious she and Jaune were getting on Cardin.
"Justice will be swift!" Ruby cried out. "Justice will be painful. It will be delicious!" The crushed juice box she threw mixed with a storm of cutlery Pyrrha was using as a kind of shield to stop team VYPR from taking damage. Sticky, juicy forks and knives went flying as Pyrrha lost her focus.
Blake swung her weapon up, Jaune still holding on. He curled up behind the shield, letting the utensils hit him. They recoiled off, raining down onto a stunned Cardin fast and hard. He put up his Aura, but it was death by a thousand cuts. Literally. Jaune pulled on Blake's whip, using it to spin end-over-end to deliver the back of his boot to Cardin's forehead on the way down with enough force to overthrow a small government.
Someone went flying through one of the stone columns holding up the vaulted cafeteria room. Now broken masonry joined the storm of watermelons hitting everything and ruined almost everyone's uniform. With all the dust and food gore, Blake just knew the laundry rooms in the dorms would have a weeks-long waiting list just to get to a machine.
It was a miracle the only thing she had on her uniform with a bit of blood. Then again, she knew from experience that blood didn't wash out very easily.
Half-stumbling, Cardin took a swing at her. She sidestepped it faster than he could move, wrapping her whip around his arm. With a solid tug, Cardin fell forwards straight into her knee. The boy twice her size collapsed onto all fours, barely conscious. Until Jaune grabbed his mace off the ground and battered him face-first into the ground. There went the last of Cardin's Aura.
Blake stood there, panting. Fingers sweating. Her cat ears twitched under her hairbow. They'd done it. She and Jaune, as partners. Took out one of the biggest, meanest bastards in the freshman year. And all it took was a bit of training, teamwork, and enough collateral damage to utterly destroy the school cafeteria.
She looked down at Cardin, and felt her hands shaking. This… this wasn't enough. Cardin was a complete racist fuckwad. He deserved far more than a simple bloody nose and wounded pride. She wanted to run her sword through his Aura-less torso. Pin him to the ground, nail him to a cross like they still did out on the frontier to criminals. This was too good for that bastard. If he knew Blake was a faunus, he'd be trying to ruin her life too.
She whiteknuckled Gambol Shroud, staring down at him. She had to do more. To hell with Jaune saying they needed to respect this prick. Cardin had to pay. For herself. For Velvet. For all her people. She—
Jaune put his hand on her shoulder, and smiled. The feeling sloughed off her like a snake shedding her skin. What was she doing? How was what she wanted any different than what Adam had done? Gods above, she and him really weren't that different. She wanted to say they were, but for a moment there, able to gloat and rub it in, what had she been about to do?
And then what?
Blake's knees felt weak all the sudden.
What if she did brutalize Cardin? Maybe even kill him in a moment of blind bull rage. Where would she stop? Does she go out and shoot up the first store she sees that refuses to serve faunus? Firebomb a human-only school? Go back crawling to Adam in tears, saying he was right?
"The White Fang is right because they tell us we're wrong," Adam had once told her, trying his hand at cooking dinner in camp. And failing. Badly. "What did the protests do? We only got token rights because men like your father fought in a Revolution and won. Who the hell are the humans for telling us we're fighting oppression the wrong way? Nobody in history has even broken their chains by appealing to the better angels of those keeping them in irons. Be real, Blake."
And then what?
Blake had kept asking herself and then what until she cut the cord on the train and left Adam and her old life behind.
She hadn't left because she'd had some revelation. Hadn't suddenly come up with a genius way to refute Adam and the White Fang. She left because it had felt wrong for reasons she couldn't really explain at the time, only attempts to justify after the fact. Saying that being terrorists would just get all faunus killed. Or agreeing with Jaune that terrorism would only make people hate her people.
But faced with Cardin like this, where had her mind gone? Back to the way Adam had seen the world.
That's why she left. She hadn't given Adam the chance to talk her out of it. She had made her choice and executed it. Left him and that life behind her and ran away to Beacon. Because she was terrified Adam would change her mind once and for all.
And now what?
Blake shivered against her will.
"You kicked ass!" Jaune enthused with a boyish smile.
"So did you," she said, so very quiet. Her mouth was dry.
"No, I kicked face. Big difference."
With a smile she didn't entirely feel, she pushed Jaune away playfully. Sending him right into the path of a rogue flying turkey. Blake watched it and laughed as he tried to pull his head out of the turkey's ass. And as soon as he did, Jaune's entire face fell.
Blake spun to follow his eyes, as did the rest of the entire cafeteria. She hadn't heard Glynda Goodwitch slam open the main doors and storm in over the roar of screams and clattering of food. She waved her riding crop in front of her, stopping a hail of fruit from hitting her with her telekinetic Semblance or whatever it was the Deputy Headmistress of the entire school could do. Gritting her teeth, she waved it again.
She watched as the woman's incredibly powerful ability forced all the projectiles in the room to the ground. Everything else, the misplaced trays and plates and tables, all took to the air. The castle of tables dismantled in front of Blake's eyes, sending the girl who had been atop them falling to the ground with a surprised yelp.
The air filled again with everything in the room. The column someone had destroyed reassembled itself as Glynda put the fragments back into place.
"Shit!" Jaune hissed, and instead of trying to run for cover and escape like so many other students were, he went to Cardin. Flaring his Aura for a second, he hefted the boy up onto his feet. "C'mon, you dumbass. We gotta get out of here!"
Cardin, still dazed, was at least able to get to his feet. But without his Aura strong enough to support him, he had to lean mostly on Jaune. The boy's face was a patchwork of bruises and cuts. On an abstract level, Blake felt betrayed as the boys limped away for somewhere beyond Glynda's view, using the storm of debris in the air for cover. Almost reluctantly, she followed at a vague distance. All the way out of the cafeteria down a side hallway towards the bathrooms and another one of the building's exits.
"Dude," Cardin said. "Why?"
Jaune snorted. "You might be a complete asshole half the kids here wanna kill, but you're not enough of an asshole to deserve Ms. Goodbitch."
Rubbing his bleeding face, Cardin gave a single barking laugh. "Thanks, I guess. Jaune, right? Or John. Jeans? You're wearing jeans so that feels right."
Jaune flicked the boy's forehead, right on the still swelling bruise on Cardin's forehead. Cardin yelped in pain. "I'm Jaune. And you can thank me by having some common sense."
"What?"
"Velvet."
"Who?"
"Bunny girl senpai," Jaune said, holding out the mace for Cardin to take.
"Oh." Cardin sniffed, still rubbing his wounds. He took his weapon back with an almost thoughtful expression. "Why do you care about some animal?"
"Bitch got her a name," Jaune said. Blake, standing in the shadows of the hallway, pursed her lips with distaste. "You really think you can pull that shit and not get murdered eventually? I saved your life back there. You pack one fuck of a punch, bro, but some white knight or simp was bound to try to stand up to you eventually."
"I coulda taken 'em," he muttered. "We're Huntsmen. Survival of the fittest out there."
"And yet I was able to knock you on your dick."
"Which you punched me in!"
Jaune rolled his eyes. "Weird. Thought you were a girl. Didn't feel no dick when my fist hit."
Cardin scowled, raising his fist to punch Jaune. The boy just stared back at him, and Cardin relented with a sigh. "I guess you ain't bad in a fight too. You and your girlfriend both."
Jaune punched him in the shoulder. "Man, you really think I could score with a girl like her?"
Cardin appraised Jaune for a moment. "Dunno, man. Maybe the hot but quiet bookish type just ain't you? You just gotta look off campus. Babes flock to guys like us out there in the real world. I could show you and—bam. World changed."
"Only reason you're saying that is cuz the babes here see you being a prick and assume the worst. Half of them want to kill you. Really, I'm out there saving your ass. But I'll take you up on the offer. Provided you learn how to stay alive out there, bro."
"Please. I was winning that fight at first."
"Yeah, but I was winning at last. Probably woulda won if your team actually had your back like my partner do."
Cardin made a noise in his throat, looking away. "Up for a round two?"
Jaune looked over his shoulder, towards the main cafeteria. His blue eyed landed on where Blake was lurking, and she smiled. "Maybe not till the heat dies down, bro. Team BASS versus Team CRDL. Ass kicking of the century."
"Nah. You got too many girls on your team."
"I know, right? The bitches in this school is nuts."
Cardin nodded. "Hot, though. Who's that girl in white on your team?"
"Racist rich bitch. Unless you got more money than her, no dice, Jack."
"Hey, she knows how the world works."
Jaune shook his head. "Not enough to know it's going to break her down and destroy her. Same as you if you keep up them attitudes."
"About what, faunus? Please. Like anybody cares."
"I care," Jaune said firmly. "I don't wanna see how bad it's gonna go when more than just me and my baby fists get pissed at you. You tried to help my partner when she was a-stumblin'. There's a good guy in you somewhere."
"I'm a good guy everywhere."
"Then maybe stop picking on girls half your size? You're white knight bait. Some homo trying to score a crumb of pussy by trying to fight you because you're making yourself a target."
Cardin, to Blake's surprise, actually seemed to consider that. At length, he sighed. "I don't really care what some wannabe weaklings think of me. But if a runt like you can knock my cock in, I don't know. Maybe."
Jaune put a hand on Cardin's shoulder for a moment. "Hell yeah, Cardin. Maybe focus on getting your team to back you up faster. Next time I decide to kick your ass, I want a challenge, brah."
"Your ass is grass, Jaune."
He laughed. "Toss me your number. I think you know the good places in town to unwind after this kinda shit."
"Dunno. Face is a bit messy right now."
"Bitches love bruises and scars. We're Huntsmen, remember?"
"I guess so, bro."
Blake bristled. She wasn't even really sure what she was watching. In a matter of moments, the two boys had gone from trying to kill each other, to almost seeming like friends. She genuinely did not understand what was going on. How it had even happened. It was like all it took was standing up for Cardin and then being a pair of chauvinistic pigs to become the best buddies all of a sudden. The two of them had even started making plans to hang out and try to score with girls.
She felt a hot wave of anger, and didn't know what to do with it. Jaune had said that the way to go forward was to respect Cardin for fighting back. But this conversation—she didn't know.
How was this supposed to give them inside knowledge into how to talk and deal with Weiss? Did he expect Blake to just go up to Weiss one day, beat the shit out of her, and then start talking about their ex-boyfriends together and how much boys suck? How on Remnant was that ever going to work with Weiss? Oh yes, let's talk about dresses, and painting our nails, and how small Adam's dick was—now we get along as besties and you're no longer a racist.
And then what?
Hell, even that part of the plan didn't really work. Cardin was still a racist. Still a bigot, and hadn't apologized. She didn't even think he felt remorse over it, not exactly. Only seeming to concede that going against Velvet was wrong because she was a smaller girl, and people were going to get angry about this. The boy hadn't really changed his mind, just learned that the way he was going about things was wrong. Not on a deep soul searching kind of level, but on a basic practical one. Bringing Cardin up from being a racist prick, to just being a chauvinistic prick.
How did this help anyone?
She hated this. She hated Cardin. She hated Jaune. She just wanted to reach out and strangle them both. Things had been made perhaps marginally better for a Velvet, but the problems underlying it hadn't been fixed.
Blake had lost herself so much in her angry thoughts that she hadn't noticed that the two of them were suddenly alone, her and Jaune.
"What the fuck was that?" she demanded. "How does this fix anything? Why are you friends with Cardin now! You're both just assholes and—"
Jaune stepped forward, joining her in the shadows. And wrapped his arms around her. She was so shocked and surprised she nearly activated her Semblance on reflex to escape. In a soft voice, he said to her and her alone, "It's a stupid, confusing world out there. There's no such thing as one big act that solves everything. No grand gestures to make the world a better place. Sometimes, the best you can do is a little human touch. And you're just as human as me. Probably more."
Blake sniffled in rage. And—and—and—
She couldn't hug him back.
There had been a scene in one of her books. The hero had come to the heroine in a moment of weakness. An intense conversation. When suddenly he had hugged her, and unable to stop herself, she had hugged him back. Just melted in his arms. It was a powerful idea. The idea of two people touching, and just melting all your problems away in that moment of connection.
Melting.
Blake couldn't do that. She couldn't hug him back. She couldn't melt in his arms like he was the answer to her problems. Blake wasn't that kind of girl. And Jaune wasn't that kind of boy. His touch wasn't some kind of electric feeling; it didn't make her feel hot under the collar. Nothing like those romantic books of hers when the two heroes hugged it out and made nice. All it did was make Blake feel small and helpless in a way which made her want to run away all over again. Jaune was just the asshole she had to suffer with for the next four years of her life. Everything about him was awful. An alcoholic, a chauvinist, barely competent in a fight, a font of bad ideas, and the only person in a long time that she ever really connected with.
She hated him. She hated herself. Hated how she just let him hug her. Hated those angry, hot tears in her eyes. Hated the way she didn't stop him from wiping them away on the sleeve of the school uniform.
"You were awesome out there. We did a good thing, you and I. As a team, as partners," he said in that same tone. From anyone else, and any other situation, she would have almost thought he was patronizing her. But like so many other stupid, dumb lines, it somehow came across as painfully genuine. Someone who wasn't that good with words trying his best, and meaning it all.
"I don't know how this will help with Weiss," she said. "She's just awful. Why is she even on our team?"
He was still holding her. "Because."
And that seemed to be all he knew on the topic. No answers, no smart remarks, no witty insults. Just a blank statement that was as true as any of the two of them could manage.
"I want to go home," she found herself saying. Just muttering it under her breath as if hoping he couldn't hear her.
He gave a single little laugh. "I do too. But I don't know where my home is anymore. If you weren't here, where would you be?"
Blake didn't have an answer.
"We're stuck in this little hell together, you and I. All we can do is work at it. Make this place our home. Make our team our family. I told you I'd have your back no matter what. Even if you don't believe me, even if you don't want to have my back, I'll be there for you."
"I know."
He smiled warmly, a little expression that somehow went miles. "The longest journeys start with a single step. The best ones start with you tripping and falling onto your face. Doubly so if there's cute girls involved to watch and make fun of you."
At long length, she found the effort to push him away. "You're the worst partner I've ever had."
"Worst partner you've ever had so far."
Blake didn't know why, but that actually made her laugh. And maybe at times like this, just being able to laugh in the face of everything that was wrong was the only victory she was ever going to get. The only way she'd ever feel better about herself. Losing herself in the casual stupidity of a friend.
Blake could live with that.