Weiss awoke to the smell of sea spray and a blistering heat. Groaning, she propped herself up on her forearms, squinting in the face of harsh sunlight. A figure on the beach looked at her before walking into the shade, holding something in its hands. Jaune?
"Yep." She hadn't meant to, but she must've said the last part out loud. Perhaps she was more delirious than she originally thought. "Drink this. It's water. Freshly condensated!" He said, putting on a false accent to sound like a commercial salesman. Weiss felt her face split into a smile for a brief second. It died quickly, however, as she recalled why a seashell was necessary in the first place. Giving a quick nod of thanks, she raised the makeshift container to her lips and drank greedily, causing some of the liquid to run down her chin. Jaune gave a lopsided grin, chuckling in amusement as he rose to tend to the fire.
Weiss glared at him over the seashell, only to start coughing as she choked on the water. She gathered her bearings once more as Jaune poked at the fire he tended on the beach. Gently, Weiss set the seashell back down, onto the sand.
"I've finished the water. Should I do anything with the shell?"
"You can just leave it there."
"Oh. Alright."
Silence, broken only by the popping of the wood as it was consumed by the flames. Weiss' eyes drifted downwards, catching a glint of metal. 'Crocea Mors?'
The blade lay shattered, half-buried in the sand. The words she had been about to speak seemed to die in her throat.
Instead, she got to her feet with a grunt, kicking off her heels to walk through the sand bare-foot. She finally came to a stop next to Jaune, sitting down in the sun by the heat of the fire.
The tropical climate was stifling, but sitting so close to the fire made things practically unbearable. She stripped off whatever layers she could, tossing her shawl and outer dress aside. Jaune, however, seemed to have forgone any changes to his outfit. He still wore his armor, and the layers from Atlas still hung close to his frame. He was clearly drenched with sweat.
"Don't you get uncomfortable here?"
"Not really."
Once again, the conversation ground to a halt. Weiss fidgeted in place as she stole glances at Jaune, who simply continued to watch the flames as if in a trance. She opened her mouth, only to snap it shut.
She knew something had to break the silence, yet words felt wholly unsuited for the task. 'Like using a stick to assemble a television. Or Myrtenaster as a can opener.'
Sweat began to run down her face, her gaze flitting back and forth between the endless ocean and the sandy shore. The fire continued to burn brightly.
"W...we..." Her voice sounded more like a squeak. She stopped, then coughed into her sleeve.
"We should...talk." She finally said. She didn't like the words that came out, and by the way he kept his eyes fixed on the flames he didn't either.
"We just did."
The waves rose to splash against the edges of the fire, causing it to hiss angrily. Weiss bit her lip, before opening her mouth to speak again.
"Jaune. Don't keep things hidden from me. Please?"
"What is there to keep hidden, Weiss?" Jaune asked, continuing to stare at the flames. "Are you going to tell me it wasn't my fault?"
Weiss took a stick of her own, prodding at a nearby stone. Jaune took her silence as an answer as he continued to speak.
"This isn't my first time losing somebody, Weiss, nor is it the first time I've had to shoulder the blame. I think I've just started to accept that I have some terrible luck with redheads." He barked out a laugh with no humor behind it, causing Weiss to jump in her seat. "I know it's not my fault and I know she wouldn't blame me. All I can do now is continue to fight in her memory."
He spoke with all the enthusiasm of a text-to-speech generator - one that could say words but couldn't quite grasp their meaning. She stared at him worriedly.
With a grunt, Jaune stood, his back towards her. He paused for a moment, as if to think, then opened his mouth to speak once more.
"Trust me when I say I'll be fine, Weiss. I know we're not on the best of terms but I appreciate you trying to help." He said, dusting sand off of his pants as he turned to walk away. "I'm going to gather more firewood." He started to walk away, only for Weiss to clamour to her feet as she went after him.
"You're going out on your own?"
"It makes sense for you to stay here." Jaune said calmly, as if lecturing a child. Weiss could feel herself bristle at the tone. Composing herself quickly, she feigned indifference. "I've been using this fire to boil water, but it also serves as a signal. If anyone else is here and sees the smoke, someone needs to be here waiting for them. I've done this before, so I'll be right back." Weiss clenched her jaw as he turned to walk away once again.
Jaune looked to his side to see the girl powerwalking forwards, her face set in a pout. "Weiss, did you hear what I just said?"
"Yes." She continued to walk alongside him. Jaune gave a sigh of exasperation as he trudged into the woods once more.
Weiss bent the stick with all her might, and yet it stayed in one piece. The wood warped under the pressure but did not break. Weiss took a deep breath to make another attempt, only for Jaune to walk behind her to grab the stick.
"It's rotten." Jaune said, plucking the stick from her hands and throwing it away. "A stick that bends but doesn't break isn't exactly useful to us. They're too wet to burn." Weiss nodded, reaching for a different branch to split.
"I guess you miss your team, huh? Sorry. I should've thought of the fact that you might get lonely all by yourself." Jaune said with a smile, snapping a branch and taking a quick glance at the inside before adding it to the pile.
"Jaune-"
"I've got faith that they're close by, though." Jaune interrupted, his grin faltering. "You and me being here all but guarantees everyone who fell ended up in the same place. It's a relief to know that your teammates are safe, don't you think? Especially after..." He trailed off.
Weiss' brow furrowed as she made to grab another stick. "But what about you, Jaune?" She asked, her eyes downcast. "Do you think Ren and Nora - "
A loud crack filled the air, causing Weiss' head to snap back. Jaune's back faced towards her, his shoulders hunched as he held a large stick between his hands.
"Sorry. The branch was sturdier than I thought." Jaune said, placing the dry wood with the rest. Weiss watched as he reached for another branch, one higher off the ground.
"You can't keep doing this, Jaune."
Another crack. Jaune tossed the snapped sticks onto the growing pile. "Doing what?"
With a frustrated exhale, Weiss silently turned back to her own branch. Savagely, she brought her wrists down. The resulting crack echoed through the forest. It was followed by another, then another.
The silence dragged onwards as the day continued to progress. Jaune continued to tend to the fire in an almost obsessive manner. Weiss watched him, her shoulders tense. The log dug into her thigh as she shifted to get comfortable.
"I think we should get something to eat." Jaune said, finally breaking the silence.
She hadn't exactly noticed, but truth be told, it had been quite a while since she last ate. Regardless, she was thankful for the interruption. She stood to follow Jaune as he made his way to the rock pools.
"Fish and other things tend to get stuck in here when the tide comes down." Jaune said by way of explanation. He reached into the pool and ripped out a large bundle of seaweed. "We can dry these by the fire and snack on them later."
The next pool held a medium-sized fish, which Weiss fished out with her semblance on Jaune's instruction. They hauled another three out in similar fashion, Weiss suspending them using a glyph as they walked back to the site.
"Hold onto them." Jaune said, laying out a banana leaf on the ground in front of her. He grabbed one of the fish and the handle of Crocea Mors, the remains of the blade still attached. With a quick slice, he relieved the fish of its head before slicing its belly open.
Fish guts splashed into the seawater lapping at his feet. Weiss flinched.
"Hand me the next one, please." Weiss complied, keeping her eyes firmly locked on the sandy beach. Another splash. The scent of blood began to fill the air as Weiss felt her stomach turn.
There was a dull thump as the headless corpse was thrown at her feet.
"Next." Weiss caught a glimpse of Jaune, the shattered hilt of Crocea Mors slowly dropping blood into the sea below. 'Was this what he looked like after he…'
She felt something inside of her give. The rush of emotion overwhelmed her, bypassing common sense to go straight to her head.
"Do you not need to talk about what…happened…in Atlas?" Weiss blurted out. She saw him purse his lips and hurried onwards. "I-I'm willing to listen. I promise."
"Weiss, I've already told you it's nothing."
"You can't just see something like that and just…not talk about it." Weiss continued onwards, doubtful of his assurances. "Don't you need some sort of closure? Or to talk about how you feel?" She remembered how Yang and Blake had talked it out between them. They were better for it, weren't they?
"I'm happy to be a punching bag, if you need to get it out that way. Or crying, even? I won't judge, you're my friend, even if I haven't exactly made that clear in the past…" She was rambling and probably should have shut up, but there was no stemming the tide. Jaune waited for her to finish, then turned his attention back to the fish.
"Not particularly." Another head, followed by a set of guts, dropped into the water below.
"Maybe I should leave you alone? Tell me how I can help you, Jaune. Please?"
"I don't think I need help as desperately as you think I do, Weiss." Jaune said as he added another dead fish to the pile. "One more, right?"
"How much longer are you going to pretend like everything's okay, Jaune?" Weiss asked abruptly. The glyph dissipated as the last fish dropped into the sand. Weiss watched it flop around uselessly, her fists clenched.
"Weiss?"
"Do you not need anything? You've never asked for anything at all, and every time I try to talk to you, you push me away."
"You don't need to do anything, Weiss. What would I need help with?"
"What…what would you need…" Weiss began incredulously. "Do you need me to go through a list?!"
"I don't think I need the refresher." Jaune picked the last fish up from the sand before swiftly putting an end to its misery. He tossed its corpse onto the small pile behind him. A pool of blood had begun to accumulate underneath.
"Let me help you, Jaune! Why must you insist on being so stubborn!?"
"Maybe you're hunting for something that isn't there, Weiss. Lay off." It was far too late for that. Weiss could feel the exasperation bubble into something more potent, driving her forwards like a runaway train.
"Anyone with eyes could tell that what we just went through was traumatizing. I can tell you're hurt, Jaune!"
"And anyone with ears would know that I don't want it. I'm asking you to drop it, Weiss. It'll be okay." He said, visibly fighting to stay calm.
"How could you say that anything, anything at all, is okay!? Nothing's 'okay,' Jaune!" Weiss growled. "Nothing at all! And I'm sick of you pretending like it is!" Weiss said, her chest heaving as she ran her hands through her hair.
"Alright. We'll do things your way then, Weiss." Jaune said as he rounded on her. Weiss suddenly felt very small. "Nothing's okay. We don't know where we are - in fact, I thought everyone - including you, by the way - was dead, for a good while. I've been deeply traumatized from all the shit we've gone through. I wish Salem never started a stupid shadow war and I wish Ozpin never dragged us into it in the first place! The stages of grief feel more like a cycle to me, cause it seems like every time I'm starting to get out something throws me back in!" Jaune took a deep breath, almost caving in on himself. Weiss grabbed him by the shoulders to steady him. "There, Weiss. I've 'talked it out.' Now what? Have our problems been solved? Do we have a place to stay, something to eat? Have we found your teammates?" Jaune's eyes blazed as he towered over her. Weiss' lip trembled as she stared defiantly back. Then the fire petered out, and all Weiss could see was a deep darkness.
"Will they stop being dead?" Jaune murmured. "Do they come back if we 'talk it out?'" He faced away from her, walking towards the pile of fish. Weiss stood still, the fight having been sucked out of her. Her breath came heavily as she shuddered from force of emotion. Suddenly, Jaune stopped. He looked back to meet her gaze.
"When I was younger, I always thought that I'd live a life out of a fairy tale, you know? That I'd get my own 'happily ever after...'" He sighed. "I wish I could've been right."
"Endings don't come for people who endlessly try to get away from their problems. N-not happy ones, at least." She said softly. "How much longer...will you keep running?"
"As long as I can, Weiss."
She watched him tread away in silence. Without a word, she began to follow.
Slowly but surely, the sun set over the horizon. Jaune, having insisted that Weiss get some rest, continued to tend to the fire as Weiss faced in the other direction.
Had their relationship really been so tenuous, kept afloat only by stress, world-ending stakes and the chatter of mutual friends? Had their bond frayed to the point where even casual conversation came to a grinding halt?
'Was there ever a bond in the first place?' She couldn't remember the last time they'd talked. The opportunity had always been there, but...
Since Haven, she'd always thought that there was something between them. Something born from their history in Beacon, the bits of companionship they shared, the way that the world had forced them both to grow up.
Perhaps it was a mistake to have relied on something so negligible to build a genuine bond, one that could persist through the strain placed upon them. Perhaps it was a mistake to have read so deeply into every little interaction between them, hoping for those small, fleeting moments to do what she couldn't.
'If only Ruby were here…' She thought. But there was no Ruby. This time, it was only Weiss.
She couldn't sleep.
Not because she was worried about him, though that certainly played a part. Nor was it for lack of effort - she felt exhaustion heavy in her bones, pooling in her muscles and behind her eyes. More so, she simply could not close her eyes. To do so was to see the grief of a friend. It was to feel the heavy weight of loss, anger and denial; to hear the maniacal laughter of a deranged puppet master, pulling the people she loved with her invisible strings.
There was something deeply ironic in being constantly reminded of the things she only wanted to forget.
During the worst of times, she would see nothing at all, with only the void to keep her company. The same void that had swallowed her friends whole with its gaping maw that had now come to engulf her, as she desperately scrabbled away from a certain demise, helplessly watching Penny's limp body fall down, down, down…
The darkness almost seemed to grin before it started to laugh and laugh and -
It was pierced by a dim but familiar light. Her eyes snapped open with a gasp, her breathing quick and shallow. Her aura glowed ever-so-faintly, the translucent web shimmering over her body along with a sheen of sweat. She felt Jaune's weight against her back, his Semblance silently enveloping her form. Weiss tensed, her eyes locked ahead towards the forest and night sky. Silently, she waited for something to happen, to shift...
Only for him to do nothing at all. There was no heartfelt admission of feeling between them, no sudden breakdown or outpouring of tears and grief. He simply made his presence known, the fire finally left ignored as its coals crackled. Its embers rose and fell, dancing silently through the night sky.
Slowly but surely, Weiss felt the tension bled away. She breathed out deeply, shifting against him.
"Just a nightmare." He said softly. "Go back to sleep."
'It's peaceful.' She thought. "Hey, Jaune?"
"Mm?"
'Sorry.' "Thank you. For the company." She said instead.
"Shouldn't I be thanking you?"
Her only response was a silent smile. It was only a matter of time before she drifted off.