Chapter 19: Some Things Change & Some Things Don't

Beacon Academy

Blake felt her eyelids flicker open to be greeted by the warm rays of sunlight being cast from the window. Her eyes blinked several times to take in the sight. She took in a deep breath, held it for a few seconds, then exhaled. Then she slowly rose up, the warmth of her bed replaced with the cool, yet not uncomfortable atmosphere of her team's room.

Looking around herself, the faunus girl quickly assessed where her teammates were in the room.

Yang was asleep, her bed sheets tangled up and her limbs equally so. As usual, she was snoring and although she didn't have a wide-open mouth, there was enough space for saliva to slowly leak from her lips. Her hair was also equally as disorganized as the rest of her body. It was not a graceful sight to be sure.

Fitting. Blake mused to herself.

Pyrrha, by contrast, was tucked neatly under her sheets, Her red hair, despite not being in its usual ponytail, was still relatively straight. Her face was the perfect representation of a composed face. However, gone was the usual trademark polite smile and in its place was a mute, but peaceful expression.

Amazing. Blake could only marvel.

Despite the brawler and the spartan looking starkly different when it came to how they slept, there was one thing that they shared in common: they were both heavy sleepers. As in, it took a considerable amount of physical shaking and at a certain point, ice-cold water was considered. That wasn't even her own suggestion; their team was going to be late and Jaune decided that more drastic measures were called for.

Speaking of her team leader and partner, Blake looked to his bed to find him not there. His bed was not only empty, but it was made precisely and neatly. He always made an effort to keep his section of the room tidy and in order. She supposed that this habit of cleanliness came from his family. It must've been something drilled into him because even during their lows, he managed to keep his stuff organized.

But where was Jaune?

Golden eyes surveyed the entire room, but to no avail. He must've gotten up and left to get himself fully awake without the risk of waking his team up.

Blake quickly but quietly got to her feet, made her bed, and got dressed. She chose not to shower immediately, just brush her teeth and clean up her face a little bit before quickly exiting to the halls to find her partner.

Her journey didn't take her far. The blond-haired knight was where they seemed to always have to themselves when it was convenient. It was strange, but better not to think too hard into it.

His hair whipped lightly against the wind. His hands were in his pocket as he stared off into the distance.

She moved to stand at his left side, turning her head to see what sort of face he was making.

For a moment, his face was simply even. He was neither happy nor sad, at least as far as she could tell.

Then his head turned so that they made eye contact.

"Good morning, Blake." Jaune greeted her quietly

Blake showed a small smile. "Good morning, Jaune."

Already, just seeing him and the way he regarded her raised her mood and she was already in a good mood before seeing him.

"You look well." Jaune turned his body to her. "Any reason why?"

Blake felt her mouth move before her brain. "Because I'm with you."

Her eyes flared up in surprise at her own frank admittance. She turned her head away slightly in embarrassment. He didn't say anything to that and served to make her feel more awkward. She rarely ever expressed joy so openly. It was so out of left field for her that now she wasn't sure what she should do next.

Then she felt something warm envelop her hands. Her gaze tilted down and she saw that he had taken her hand into his own. His grip was firm enough where she would not be able to escape without exerting some force, but not so firm that it was painful.

"I'm surprised that you're being so shy about this considering you made a move yesterday." Jaune laughed lightly.

Blake lifted her gaze to meet him. His face remained the same: smiling and bright.

"If you're wondering about what I'm feeling, then don't worry. I can't put it into words, but I know that I care about you. I want to do right by you not just as your partner, but as your friend as well… and maybe something more." Jaune appeared almost hesitant in his wording, but he still spoke them clearly.

His eyes were so blue and so brilliant. They were so full of life.

Blake tightened her fingers around his. "I'll admit that I don't really know what to make of what we have either. I've never felt this way about anyone before… never."

"Then we've got something to work on together." Jaune stepped closer to her. "Whatever happens, I do want one thing to remain the same: our friendship. Even if this thing doesn't work out, I want us to always have each others' backs when things get tough. No need to make it awkward; we've been through that phase."

Blake nodded, moving closer as well. "Agreed. I want us to always maintain trust with each other no matter what. I don't want to lose you to something petty like hurt feelings."

"You won't." He shifted into a more serious look. "I swear on the Arc family name that I will always let you know when there's trouble."

She found such a vow a bit much, but she couldn't deny his dedication. "Thank you, Jaune. I just…"

She felt her voice crack a bit. She was honest, more so than she had been in a long time, but she was still afraid.

Jaune said nothing, but pulled her into his arms and quietly hugged her. It was a gesture that Blake didn't know how to react to.

"I got you." His voice was down to nearly a whisper, yet his conviction was loud and clear. "You're okay. We're okay."

Her fear seemed to vanish as she accepted the embrace by placing her hands flush against his chest as well as her face. She breathed in, taking note of his scent. It was a light, like the smell of cinnamon.

Blake felt her voice crack again. "I'm so sorry. I never realized how much the White Fang fucked me up until coming to Beacon. And I'm still dumping all of it on you. You don't deserve that."

"At least you're aware of it now. That's the first step to atoning." Jaune kept her in his embrace. "As long as you keep taking steps to become better, that's all that matters. That's all you can do. Remember what I told you about changing yourself and the world?"

Blake did indeed remember what he had told her. "Change myself before I change the world."

"And what do you think about what I said?"

"I think… I do need to make serious changes to myself. I just feel like I should be doing it much faster."

No matter how much she looked in the mirror or had internal conversations with herself, there were days when she didn't feel like much had changed besides the lingering feelings of guilt.

"You've already changed more than you realize." It sounded like Jaune disagreed with her. "You're a lot less brooding and more open with what you feel. I won't say that you're at Yang's level, but you've gotten better. Pyrrha and Yang agree too."

Blake craned her head up to see his eyes. "They've been watching me?"

"We all have. Punishment time might be over, but we still study and work and have fun together. We're bound to see changes happening given our living situation. You can't tell me you don't notice when something about any of us changes from your initial impressions of us."

Blake blinked. "Point… taken."

"So stop worrying so much and just keep following your gut instinct. If something feels right, go for it. If it doesn't, don't do it. No matter how it ends, take responsibility for it and never look away, even if you royally fuck up."

He was right and she wasn't about to offer him any more doubt. That would be another excuse for her and she was done with excuses.

"I won't look away, even if I royally fuck up." Blake reiterated to him. "I swear it."

"Good." Jaune seemed relieved.

With mutual promises and vows exchanged, they simply returned to their embrace. The warmth of the sun was felt against their skin. The early morning sunlight beamed down on them, their shadows melded like they were.

"You're so warm." Blake buried her face in his chest.

Jaune hummed in agreement. "No better way to start the weekend."

"...can we just stay here for a little while?"

"...yeah… we can…"

RWBY - - - RWBY

They were getting close to the end of the semester and as usual, they had to prepare for finals in all their classes. This included combat classes with Professor Goodwitch, which was going to be practical and application-based.

For Jaune, it was the class that he was worried about the most. Although he had made noticeable improvements in his individual combative abilities, he still wasn't on a level comparable to that of his teammates. Surely, that knew that and they just hadn't brought it up to him.

As much as he appreciated Blake's support in swordsmanship, he knew that there were more than just sword people at Beacon and in the world. He needed different styles and different levels of mastery to contend with.

Naturally, his thoughts turned to his remaining teammates. Both Yang Pyrrha were arguably the best freshman fighters currently at Beacon Academy. Seriously, their match-making numbers in combat class spoke for themselves. Neither of them had lost a single match to anyone other than each other. Even then, it was only Yang who lost; Pyrrha was simply just that good.

At first, Jaune thought he would find it hard to thrive in an environment where his closest peers were leagues better than he was. As it turned out, his fears were unfounded. Both the brawler and the spartan were friendly, affable, and had his back when it mattered. For that, they had his thanks and his trust.

Now the knight felt like he owed them an explanation as to why his combative performance wasn't up to par with theirs. At the very least he owed it to them not just as a friend, but as a team leader. The last thing he wanted was for them to hear it from someone else and potentially cause a rift between them.

But Jaune wouldn't say that he wasn't afraid to tell them the truth about his admittance into Beacon. His mind had imagined all the scenarios that could play out, but it always came back to him in the end. Even with all the potential for the overall team dynamic to suffer, he felt the need to do this if only so he didn't have to keep secrets.

And as it turned out, he would get just that opportunity to speak with them. After he had his intimate moment with Blake, the two of them had split off to take care of their own things. The faunus girl wanted to read today and he wanted to check up on his team to see if they had any plans for today.

Luckily for the blue-eyed teenager, he found both Pyrrha and Yang hanging out, doing nothing in particular. Usually the two of them did training during the week and used the weekend days for recovery. Whatever they were doing, he didn't stop either of them from their established routine. They produced results after all and he would be hard-pressed to find anything better among the freshmen.

He told both girls that he had an important topic to talk to them about and they were willing to lend him their ears.

"This is serious, right?" Yang's tone was playful, yet focused. "I can tell by your face."

Jaune sighed. "Read me that easily? No, I guess that's how I've always been."

"I agree with Yang." Pyrrha's concern was apparent. "You seem more than a little stressed."

Jaune sat back on his bed. "You could say that. It might be nothing, but that depends on how you respond to what I'm about to say."

"Aight." Yang leaned in. "Whatcha got?"

He ran a hand through his hair, assessing whether or not this was a good idea, then deciding to throw his fears to the wind. Thinking was going to paralyze him so it was time to just say what he needed to say.

"So I'm sure you both have noticed that I suck at fighting compared to everyone and there's a reason for that." Jaune took a quiet breath in and out before he confessed. "I've never actually attended a combat academy. I don't have any combat experience prior to joining Beacon. My transcripts were forged so that I could get here."

There, he said it. He turned his eyes away, but he wouldn't hang his head.

Yang was the first to speak. "You're not cappin'.

"Not one bit." Jaune said.

Pyrrha was next. "...if you didn't have any qualifications to join Beacon, why risk life, limb, and eyesight to do this?"

"I know. I know that it sounds stupid in hindsight, but my reasons for lying into Beacon were simple." Jaune could only think back on his original reason for coming here and ask himself if he was mentally sane at the time.

"But I wanted to stop being a spectator in my life. I wanted to matter and to be able to do something that no one could ignore me for. My family, they don't see me as an individual; they see me as a child who can't do things by himself. The community I grew up in? They see a boy who's goofy, but nothing else. And my father? My grandfather and his father? All of them were respected warriors, people that were looked up to and relied upon.

Yang's cheer was replaced with a thoughtful look. "And you thought that you HAD to become a huntsman to change yourself?"

"I needed drastic change in my life. I figured that it was worth the risk." Jaune laughed at the simple and stupid logic. "Looking back at it, I was incredibly desperate. I didn't even have an aura until Blake unlocked it during initiation."

Both the brawler and the spartan couldn't contain their surprise at this statement.

Pyrrha went to scold him. "Jaune, how could you enter into this career without even an understanding of the basics? You could have died."

"I get it. I was a dumbass. You don't need to remind me." Jaune didn't like hearing this, even though he had to acknowledge it. "But I was desperate, and desperate people tend to not think things through."

Yang sat up straighter. "Look Boss, I get that boys want to make a difference and all and have some adventure in life, but there's a difference between taking a necessary risk and an unnecessary risk. You took the latter; the fact that you made it this far is amazing. I'd call it luck,"

"I know. I shouldn't be alive. I shouldn't have passed initiation. I shouldn't be a team leader, but all of that's happened." Jaune looked down at the floor. "Now I have to own everything that's happened. That means I need to prove that I can win not just by a fluke, but I need help doing that. I need you two for that."

From the corner of his eyes, he saw the two partners in a silent exchange. He didn't know what to expect, but he kept his expectations low just in case.

Yang went first. "While I can't say that I agree with how you got it in, as reckless as I like to be, I speak for both myself and Pyrrha when I say that we trust you and we know that despite how much you suck now, you're still putting in the work. That's more than some people in our class can say. You want us to help you out? We'll do it; just let us know what specifically you need help with and we'll make it work."

Jaune dared to lift his eyes to make eye contact with both of them.

"And you're selling yourself short if you think that you're completely inept." Pyrrha chimed in with her thoughts. "Your ability to make decisions and judge the battlefield are unusually sharp. You also have a natural ability to lead and inspire. We wouldn't follow you and your plans if we didn't think so."

His blue irises looked between them. He was expecting more of a fight on the subject, but now they were offering him support.

Yang shrugged. "If there's one thing I can say that you need to do more, it's just to do shit. Think less and do more. You can come up with the most kickass plan in the world, but it means nothing if you can't put your money where your mouth is."

"Agreed. You should learn to trust your instinct." Pyrrha added onto what her partner said. "More often than not, it'll help guide you where you need to go."

And as time went on, he could find himself agreeing that more often than not, his own inner thoughts were more problematic to his growth than any action he had taken. Yeah, some of the stuff he'd done while here at Beacon was scary, but he'd made it out alive and kicking. That had to count for something.

Jaune felt better nonetheless. "I'll keep that in mind… and thanks."

"What are friends for?" Yang say on his bed and grabbed him in a headlock. "But you owe us for helping your sorry ass."

They could worry about the details of his training later.

For now, he felt lighter.

Secrets were hard to keep.

RWBY - - - RWBY

The end of the first semester was close at hand and because old dramas had been settled handily, plenty of time could be devoted to honing themselves for the first major evaluation of their collective training and learning at Beacon Academy.

Jaune learned more swordsmanship from Pyrrha; although he was thankful to Blake for providing a foundation, he found the spartan's style to be more fitting for him due to his more heavy build. Yang also provided some hand-to-hand combat training for him. Knowing how to fight with only the body was actually a somewhat-overlooked skill in the era of specialized weapons and firearms. All of this combined with his leadership development and team tactics made for a full workload, but rewarding all the same.

Pyrrha continued to be as invincible as ever individually, but learning to work with teammates was something new for her. Even if she was the best on the team, she was no longer in a position to go lone wolf; she had a responsibility to her team as well as herself. Jaune taught her how to maintain situational awareness of the team as well as how to be more aware of Blake and Yang's strengths and weaknesses and how she could best leverage her strengths to help reduce shortcomings wherever applicable.

Blake has taken to working on her overall stamina. Out of everyone on her team, she was physically the weakest. That wasn't to say she wasn't physically strong, but her style revolved around speed and agility. The team as a whole was more adept in strength and survivability. Thus, she turned to Yang for strength training while Pyrrha provided endurance training. Jaune also was teaching her how to be more aware of the roles of each of them in order to develop her ability to think more critically in combat.

Yang reluctantly had come to realize how much her aggression was doing no good for herself, but also for her team. To fix that, she had started learning how to approach fighting with a more rational mindset. Pyrrha was very helpful in that regard; she had plenty of experience in dealing with a variety of situations that forced her to remain level-headed in order to come out on top. Jaune supplemented this physical training by providing some mental exercises and seeing how the brawler would respond.

All in all, the four of them had proved that their work was paying off. They had maintained their position as the number one team in the freshman year in spite of their initial rocky start. None of them had any truly egregious complaints about work ethic, dedication to training, or personal feelings about each other.

But even with their finals coming up, they never forgot recovery and rest days. Those were just as important as well. Even with the intensity ramping up, Sunday was always a day for all of them to just relax as a team and do something together. It didn't really matter what it was. It could be something as simple as chatting away.

Like right now.

"Anyone heard any good gossip lately?" Yang laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "I haven't been able to listen in thanks to all the studying and training we've been pulling."

Jaune, despite listening to music, heard from the one year that didn't have an earbud. "We've all been doing the same as you. What makes you think we know anything more?"

"Some of y'all got better attention spans than me." Yang raised a hand above her. "Just a thought."

Blake too had one earbud in, listening to what her team leader was listening to. "You're not doing anything now. Why don't you go and find out for yourself."

"That means I'd have to get up and actually make an effort." Yang groaned loudly. "That's not what we do on Sunday, remember?"

Jaune didn't really want to hear it. "Yang, shut up."

"Rude." Yang said back, equally annoyed.

Pyrrha laughed lightly. "Now, now, Yang. I'm sure that you'll survive until tomorrow. You can hunt for interesting topics concerning our peers."

"See that, boss?" Yang pointed to the redhead. "She's got my back with kind words. Why are you spittin' hate at me?"

Jaune gave her a look. "What do you plan to do with the gossip that you find?"

"What else?" Yang grinned from ear to ear. "Use it to tease everyone for my own entertainment."

Blake also presented a withering stare. "You know what would brighten this room more? If you left it."

"See, this is some conspiracy between you two." Yang pointed to both the knight and the ninja. "You two are double-teaming me. Just wow."

Jaune leaned into his chair. "You could always shut up like I told you to."

"You first, boss." Yang sat up and looked in the eye. "Practice what you preach."

Jaune scoffed. "It's not preaching. It's an order from your team leader."

"That so?" Yang rose to her feet. "How about we take it outside and see who's really boss? I'll kick your ass and we'll see who's really boss."

A staring contest began.

Pyrrha looked nervous "You guys?"

Blake said nothing, but her focus was on her team leader and the brawler.

No words for a few more seconds.

It was such a serious atmosphere.

Until it wasn't.

Then both blonds just burst into laughter.

The ninja and the spartan looked at each other in confusion. The former shook her head while the latter shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh gods." Yang took a few moments to recover from her laughter. "I can't, I just can't deal with your ass."

Jaune managed to compose himself faster. "I wish I could just throw a stick and you'd go away."

"What's that mean?" Yang eyed him. "You callin' me a bitch?"

Jaune was equally engaged. "Such vulgar language is beneath me."

"Oh, so now I'm a slut." Yang crossed her arms. "Now your true feelings about me are comin' out."

Jaune shook his head. "I'm a team leader. Team leaders don't discriminate."

"So we're all your bitches." Yang laughed. "Watch out, girls. This guy's a real-deal P.I.M.P. Harem protagonist!"

Jaune raised an eyebrow. "...no. Just…no."

"Three girls and one guy on the team and the guy's the team leader." Yang reiterated. "If that doesn't scream harem, I don't know what does."

Blake frowned. "How about an overactive imagination?"

"Ruin my fun, why dontcha." Yang stuck her tongue out at the faunus girl. "Girl, just cause you got a boyfriend don't mean you can talk down to mea."

Blake blinked. "...but I don't have -"

"No, you DO." Yang interrupted, getting face-to-face. "You DOOOO."

Blake leaned away while narrowing her eyes. "You were spying on us."

"Guilty as charged." Yang smiled and admitted to her actions.

Jaune rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Why were you spying on us?"

"It's not like I went there with the intent to." Yang turned her eyes to her fellow blond. "I figured you were training. So imagine when I almost open the door fully to see you two holding each other."

Pyrrha tried to intervene. "Yang, I believe that you've made your point qui-"

Yang was having none of it. "Not now, Pyrrha. I need to milk this as much as I c-"

"Hey what's going on, guys?" Ruby somehow opened the door to their room. "Whatcha doin'?"

"Oh, hey, sis." Yang immediately ceased her interrogation. "You need something?"

Jaune was confused. "How did you get into our room without a key?"

"I…huh…I don't know." Ruby struggled to come up with an answer. "I just did, but forgot about that. I'm bored and Weiss won't leave me alone about classwork, so I came to see what you guys were doing."

Yang grabbed her little sister by the shoulders. "Don't worry about it, Rubes. It's not for you to know. Adult stuff."

"You're only two years older than me!" Ruby whined. "You're not even a legal adult yet!"

The elder blonde guided them to the hall. "Still older than you. C'mon, let's go did sistery stuff."

"But I wanna know what's going on!" Again, Ruby protested.

The door closed behind them, thus bringing silence to the room. The remaining three took a moment of awkward silence.

"I'll… go see what the rest of RWRN is doing." Pyrrha opted to leave as well.

Leaving Jaune and Blake.

The former forced a breath out. "Well, that happened."

"Yes." The latter offered a lame response.

The quiet allowed their minds to calm down and they were both able to process the the song playing from the split earbuds had changed.

"This song is too intense for my mood." Jaune immediately hit the pause button on his scroll. "Well now what?"

Someone's stomach growled loudly.

Blake felt her cheeks change color. "Can we get some food? I think the cafeteria's still open."

"Not really hungry right now, but I guess I'll get something for later." Jaune rose to his full height. "You got your student ID?"

The faunus girl held up the item in question.

Her partner motioned to the door.

RWBY - - - RWBY

Ozpin had spent millenia with many remarkable individuals. Many had made an impression on him, even as he grew older and he began to see patterns that most people failed to notice in their lifetimes.

Beacon Academy was a place where he had seen individuals of many different types come through. Some were simple-minded, others opportunistic, and one or two were heroic. The last one in particular had always been something he had a bias towards. That used to be him, the young hero who dared to brave any journey in the name of justice.

Just as important as the individual was the team that they were a part of. Even the most powerful and skilled huntsman in the world could only do so much alone. Teamwork would allow even the impossible to be possible. Still, over the course of eighty years training and fielding elite warriors to fight Grimm, he could guess which ones were most likely to succeed and which ones were most likely to fail.

But there would always be a select few that would rise above even his expectations and become something truly spectacular, something beyond even his ability to predict. He might be highly experienced and knowledgeable about Mankind, but even he couldn't see everything. Only the Gods could.

Ozpin in particular had an interest in Team JPBY, the number-one ranked team of all freshman teams. All of them were as different as they could be.

A legacy brat who had lied his way in.

A four-time Mistral champion and celebrity.

A former member of the White Fang.

A child of Raven and Taiyang.

They had lived very different lives, yet somehow their teamwork and bonds were among the strongest that he had seen at this academy.

He had assumed that Summer Rose's child would be the one to watch out for due to her silver eyes, but it would seem that he was wrong this time.

In particular, he had been interested in Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna. Ever since their battle with the Goliath, the two of them had been a source of much interest for him. It was extremely rare to find any freshman students who could contend with alphas let alone Grimm as advanced as Goliaths. The fact that they did beat one at all was something to take note of.

Every time he asked the professors as to their opinions about the two of them, they all spoke the same thing: the two of them were particularly close. They trusted each other without question and they seemed to be together all the time, a surprise indeed.

The professors also mentioned that prior to the Goliath incident, their relationship was considerably more strained.

Perhaps the fight and the aftermath forced them to reconcile differences. It would make sense. The bow that Blake wore was proof of her fear about what others might think about her heritage. Jaune's falsified transcripts had to be a result of his obvious lack of skill and teenagers often didn't care to admit to shortcomings lest they get flak from peers.

"Jaune Arc and Blake Belladonna." Ozpin muttered to himself. "How will you surprise me next?"

He had a feeling that these two were going to blindside him again.

When, he couldn't know.

Beyond this point, there will be no more inner-team drama. At this point, what's there left to hide? Secrets have come out and everyone's handling it like good friends ought to. As long as you've proven to the people that you trust that you've changed for the better and that you won't stop doing so, there's nothing to argue about.

I won't lie: I almost fell into the trap of drama again. It was subtle, but I realized what I was doing and I stopped it. As much as I can get behind drama, I know that at a certain point, it's redundant not to mention annoying. Plus, I had enough drama written in One-Night Brand. This is a much more down-to-Earth kind of romance.

Thoughts? Reviews and feedback are helpful, even if it's to correct me on grammar.

Thanks for reading.

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken."

Oscar Wilde