Jaune felt as if he had aged twenty years in the span of a few weeks. Looking around it was not difficult to understand why.

He sat alone at the bar of Junior's club, a drink in front of him which was being slowly nursed. The fact that it was only soda rather than alcohol did not do much to change his perception of things. He was like every guy he had ever seen in the movies who sat alone with a drink contemplating his life. A rollercoaster life which had gone from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows, and everywhere in between. That rollercoaster did not appear to have any brakes, and these days it seemed like it only travelled at the highest of speeds. There was no getting off at this point.

To further add to his sense of maturity he was watching the evening news before work. He had never worked a job prior to being offered one by Junior. Now though after doing it a number of weeks it seemed normal. He walked around the place like he owned it, a sense of familiarity that came through experience. He knew where things were. He knew how to do things. The uneasy apprehension of the unknown had vanished, and now the only things which frightened him were the new tasks. Tasks like bartending. He was still slow, clumsy and awkward at that job, but like with all things, experience would cure those ailments.

Jaune had gotten used to seeing the pale face and light purple hair of Lisa Lavender every evening as she talked about the best and worst events happening in Vale on that given day. From Grimm attacks and violent crimes to heartwarming stories of cute animals and good deeds done, she was there to report them all. On this particular evening one story struck close to home.

"A gruesome discovery was made today at Tukson's Book Trade in downtown Vale. Authorities found the body of the bookstore's owner, Tukson, in a backroom of the store after receiving an anonymous tip from a concerned individual. No suspects are in custody, but it is believed that foul play was involved in the incident. The Vale police department has declined to offer any further comments."

The anonymous call had been made so that the man could receive the proper burial and respect that he deserved. No one would ever know that it was Jaune himself who had made that call. He didn't want them to either. Not after he had taken part in breaking into the store and looting the man's scroll from his corpse. He still felt uneasy about that, but at least it had led to some manner of retribution for the shop owner. The White Fang thugs from the meeting were in custody now, which might have some sort of an impact on their operations here in Vale. Jaune could only hope so. Tukson deserved justice after what was done to him.

His fists clenched at the thought of that justice being dished out. It had felt satisfying. It felt good. It felt like it was the right thing to do. The White Fang were terrorists. They were bad people. It was a good thing that they were beaten and locked away. As a huntsman it would have been his duty to society to see that they were dealt with so that they could never hurt anyone innocent. If huntsmen was expected to battle against Grimm to protect humanity, were humans and faunus who were also a threat really so much different?

When a human or faunus became monsters, did they not deserve to be put down as well?

That thought was worrying to him, because deep down inside he felt as though they did. When people decided to murder others for their own greed, hate, or twisted beliefs, they forfeited their right to be treated as humans themselves. They were no better than the Grimm who slaughtered innocent civilians every day. Worse, in fact. Grimm, from what Jaune understood, were simply mindless beasts. They did what they did out of instinct rather than selfish desire or premeditation. When a person killed an innocent civilian, they did so by choice.

It was why it had felt good to do what he had done. To hurt those people who had killed Tukson. To break teeth. To make them bleed. To hear their cries of pain. It was probably all merely a small fraction of the pain and suffering they had inflicted upon others. They were indeed monsters dressed in people's skin. It had nothing to do with the fact that they were faunus either. It could have just as easily been a human terrorist organization. They deserved everything that they had gotten that night, and Jaune was happy he could be the one to do it.

Did he always feel this way? Did these new experiences he had been exposed to change his beliefs? Or had the violence he experienced in the past few weeks simply desensitized him to that degree? He didn't know, and he certainly would not find a moral compass in Junior or the twins. However he knew of one person he could always count on for such an opinion. One person who he knew lived to be the hero and save the day.

Fishing his scroll out of his pocket, Jaune looked through his contact list until he found the appropriate entry. It didn't take long, seeing how it wasn't that extensive of a list. Family, a few friends from back home, and a few new friends he had made since coming to Vale. The girl in question was a part of that last category.

He hoped that Ruby would not be too busy. At this hour she should be done with classes, but he didn't want to interrupt her if she was having fun with her team or doing homework. For a brief moment Jaune thought about what his life might have been like if he had his own team at Beacon, and what he might be doing now instead of having a crisis of morality at a seedy nightclub. He squashed such thoughts before they could take root in his mind. There was no need to dwell upon what could have been.

He had no time to think about that sort of thing anyway, as Ruby soon answered her scroll. "Hey, Jaune!" she greeted warmly. "Ooh, where are you right now?"

The video call must have shown the interior of the club in the background. Jaune glanced around, taking in the brightly lit room. It looked so different when it wasn't business hours. Black walls and floors along with red and white decorations gave the place a unique look, and in this light everything was clear and detailed.

"Work," he answered. "Still a couple hours until we open, but it's not like I have much else to do right now." What he didn't choose to include was the detail that he lived a few floors above the club.

"Wow, it looks so cool," she gushed. "I mean the colors alone are awesome. But then again maybe I'm a little biased."

Jaune remembered the black and red attire that Ruby normally wore. Naturally she would have an affinity towards a place which shared those colors.

"Yeah. It's, uh... it's different for sure."

"You like it there, right?"

Did he? He couldn't say. There were certain things he liked about it. Then again there were certain things he did not. It was a difficult question to answer. Instead he chose to be vague. "It's... interesting."

That was no lie. Whether the experience was good or bad, there was no doubt in his mind that everything he had gone thought had been interesting. Everything had been new. Every person he had met had been unlike anyone he had ever associated with before. He needed to look no further than his two closest coworkers for examples of that.

"Well that's... good, right?" she asked.

He didn't know. He didn't particularly want to lie to her, not after he had already lied once before about Beacon. "I'm not sure," he said with a nervous laugh. Maybe if he tried to make it seem humorous she wouldn't press him on the issue.

If it had worked it certainly did not show on the girl's face, and she frowned before continuing. "So what's up?"

He shrugged. "Not much." It wasn't exactly a lie. Right now he was doing little more than wasting time until the club opened to the public. "But I'm not bothering you or anything, right?"

By the way her face started to shake wildly on the screen, Jaune could only imagine that the girl was waving her arms animatedly at the question. "No no! Not at all!" she insisted. "You know. Just hanging out with the team. Doing... Beacon stuff."

He didn't quite know what Beacon stuff entailed. However if she wasn't busy he could only assume it was homework. She probably would have been somewhere that didn't resemble a dorm room if she was having some sort of combat practice. And she definitely would have been outside if she was doing some sort of fun activity off school grounds.

"Oh. Well that's cool I guess."

"Yup. Cool as cool can be," she confirmed.

Jaune smiled. She was still as awkward and weird as ever. Awkweird one might say. He was glad they had stayed in touch after his departure from the school. She truly was one of a kind.

"There was something," he began uneasily. He brought a hand up to scratch his cheek before going on. "Do you remember a while back we talked about... stuff?"

She frowned again. "Stuff?"

"Yeah. Stuff," he confirmed, as if it would explain everything. When he realized it wouldn't he continued. "About... I don't know. Morals and stuff. Hurting people."

Ruby's frown deepened. Gone was the awkward girl who was on his screen only moments ago. Now she looked more like a concerned sibling. "Yeah. I remember that," she said uneasily.

He didn't want to burden her with this sort of thing. It wasn't fair to the girl. She had her own life. She most likely had her own difficulties at Beacon. She didn't need his issues on top of her own. However there was no one else he felt he could discuss it with.

"You know the White Fang, right?"

She nodded. "Yup. Well, sort of. I've heard stories."

"Do you think that bad people deserve to be punished?"

She shrugged lightly. "I mean... yeah. If people do bad things like rob a bank or something they'd go to jail, right?"

"Right," he agreed. "You remember when we helped out with that robbery, right? We did the right thing, didn't we?"

Her nodding was much more forceful this time. "Yeah. Of course we did. There were people in trouble and we helped them. We did the right thing."

Jaune had never really had any real concerns about that night. Those may have been Junior's men, but what they had been doing was wrong. There had been innocent people in danger. And since he hadn't known Ruby was a badass prodigy at the time, he wasn't about to let her deal with that burden alone.

The question had a purpose, however. A logical train of thought that he was following. He revealed his hand with his next question. "What if instead of being at the right place at the right time, we had gone out looking for trouble? What if we had gone out looking for bad people to fight?"

There was still confusion and conflict on her face as she pondered the question. "Well I mean, that's sort of what huntsmen do, isn't it? They aren't like police who you call for help. They go out and just kinda look for bad stuff to help with. Right?"

The comparison to huntsmen made Jaune feel a little better about himself. It helped to confirm his own thought process. Huntsmen were proactive like that, rather than reactive like the police. Whether it was a Grimm attack, bandits, criminals, or in this case terrorists, huntsmen sought out trouble before it could cause any harm. A huntsman would have had no problem with crashing a White Fang meeting. A huntsman would have been praised for his vigilance.

As if reading his own train of thought, Ruby connected what he had just said with one of his earlier questions. "Wait, Jaune. What does any of this have to do with the White Fang?"

He frowned. In his mind's eye he could still see the body of Tukson slumped in a chair. "You've heard about the kind of stuff they do, right?"

"Yeah."

"What if you saw it firsthand? What if you knew someone who was one of their victims? Do you think that you'd even think of them as people anymore? Would you punish them for what they did? Would you hurt them?"

He saw how Ruby inhaled deeply through her nose. All traces of playfulness and humor had vanished from her eyes, replaced with nothing but concern. "Jaune, what is going on?"

"I don't know." He laughed bitterly. It was a humorless laugh which matched the girl's expression. "I mean it's not funny or anything. I don't know why I'm laughing."

"Jaune, please tell me what's going on. If you're in some sort of trouble I can help. We all can." He assumed that Ruby was talking about the rest of her team, and most likely Yang as well. "Does this have anything to do with what we were talking about before? About the bouncer job and hurting people?"

It had everything to do with that. Only he wasn't merely a bouncer. He didn't quite know what he was. Part of him wanted to call himself a vigilante. At least that gave the impression that his actions had good intentions. After all, he had beat up a bunch of terrorists and prevented numerous others from getting wrapped up in their twisted organization.

However that had just been one incident. What if next time he and the twins went out to shake down a local business for lien? What if the next Tukson they interrogated wasn't a member of the White Fang, and was instead just some poor innocent civilian? What would that make him? A gangster? That was viewed much more harshly in the eyes of the law. There was no room for shades of grey in that scenario.

"Something like that," he answered vaguely. He wasn't about to spill the details about this new life of his to her. The thought of her knowing that he had forged his Beacon transcripts scared him. The thought of her knowing that he was a crime boss' enforcer terrified him. Ruby of all people wouldn't accept that. She wouldn't accept him.

Perhaps that was why she continued to push him for information. "I don't know what any of this has to do with the White Fang or hurting people or justice, but if you're in some kind of trouble you can tell me. You can trust me. We're... we're comrades in arms, remember? You said it yourself. The strongest bonds are the ones forged on the battlefield," she said, paraphrasing something he had once told her.

Jaune couldn't help but smile at how much she cared. She really was one of a kind. She was someone he didn't deserve. Ruby cared only about helping others. Her dreams were genuine and pure, and her means of attaining them were honest. She had done so through her own skill and determination.

He on the other hand was a liar. A cheat. A fraud. A vigilante at best and a gangster at worst. She would be much better off without him. She didn't need to get caught up in this mess he had created for himself.

"It's nothing," he said with an uneasy smile. "I'm fine. Don't worry about it. These are all just hypothetical questions, remember?"

To the girl's credit, she was not letting him off the hook so easily. "Jaune, if you need help you have to tell me. I can fight, remember? You won't be putting me or Yang or anyone else in danger. We're all huntresses in training. This is what we do."

No. The last thing he wanted to do was get her involved, much less an entire team of Beacon students. Potentially more people as well. Actual huntsmen. It could negatively affect not only his life, but the lives of Junior and the twins as well. They all didn't deserve to suffer because of his own concerns.

"I appreciate the offer, but I really am fine," he insisted. This had to end now. It had been a mistake to call her about this. "I have to go now, but thanks for listening."

"Jaune, please-"

"See ya later, Ruby."

With the push of a button the call ended.

Jaune took a deep breath. His desire to make him feel better about himself may have just made things worse.

Was he a good person for wanting to fight the White Fang? Or was he a bad person for enjoying the fact that he made them suffer?

Did the ends justify the means? Were his motivations selfish?

They were all questions he did not know the answers to. For some reason he had hoped Ruby would.

Melanie stood near the doors as she waited for the conversation to end. She hadn't intended to come downstairs and walk in on the middle of Jaune's crisis of morality, but she had. However she had fully intended to eavesdrop on the conversation. One with that scared little girl Ruby Rose of all people. Just who was she and what was her connection to the boy?

A few choice words and phrases stood out to the white-clad girl. Comrades in arms. Bonds forged on the battlefield. Huntresses. Ruby was a huntress. Or at least a student at Beacon Academy. Perhaps she had met him during Jaune's brief stay before being found out as a fraud. Melanie wondered if the girl knew that little detail about his life. And what was with that one comment about stopping a robbery?

It didn't matter. Fuck little miss Ruby Rose. If Jaune did meet her at Beacon that meant he had met both herself and Miltia first. And technically speaking, he had met her before Miltia even, considering that her younger sister had been unconscious when he arrived. Therefore out of all of them, Melanie had the strongest claim on the boy. She had known him the longest. Even if it was only by a couple minutes.

Miltia would probably want to kill her if she knew her elder sister was having such thoughts. Well, what the girl didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

It pissed her off that he was associating with trash like Ruby. An ignorant little girl who thought that being a huntress was some great and noble thing. Where were the huntresses when her home was being overrun by Grimm? Where were the huntresses when her parents were killed because there weren't enough trains to evacuate them? Where were the huntresses when the tunnels had been sealed off from the rest of the kingdom? If it hadn't been for Junior both she and Miltia would be dead. They'd just be another pile of bones littering the tomb that was Mountain Glenn.

As far as she was concerned, Jaune didn't need anyone like that in his life. She and Miltia were enough for him. Too much for him to handle in fact, if she were to be honest with herself. Miltia would protect him. It was what her sister did best. The girl would undoubtedly succeed in doing so with the crush she harbored for the boy. She wouldn't allow any harm to come to him as long as he was within her reach.

Meanwhile she would show him the ropes and teach him how to survive in the real world. A world where there wasn't always some fancy huntsman there to save you. He would soon come to realize that you couldn't count on them for anything. There were no such thing as heroes. Even Junior, the man who had been her and Miltia's own personal hero, had only been so because he had been in the right place at the right time. It wasn't because of any great or noble ideals that the man harbored. He could have just as easily saved someone else instead of them. It had all been luck. Nothing more, nothing less. While it didn't make her any less grateful to him for what he had done, she was only being honest with herself.

When Jaune's call with the girl ended she advanced. There was an innocent and carefree motion in her steps, as if she had just come down from her room and overheard nothing of the conversation. However she could tell that the boy was at some sort of crossroads in his life. He was struggling with what he had done the other night at the White Fang rally. She had probably felt the same at one point in her life, back when she had first been introduced to inflicting pain and violence upon others. However she had learned long ago that such things were necessary in order to survive. It was either you or them. You had to live for yourself or you would die.

The deliberate clicking of her heels announced her presence, and Jaune turned to see her approach. His eyes did not hold the same optimism that they once had when they first met. When he had been so proud of his father being a huntsman, and wanting to be one himself. No, these eyes were filled with conflict. With doubt. She would have to be the one to set him straight.

"What's up, little huntsman?" she smiled.

He attempted to give one in return, but the expression on his lips was weak at best. "Hey, Melanie. Not much, just waiting 'til we open up to the public."

He wasn't even phased by her nickname for him anymore. How annoying. Perhaps she would need to come up with something new. Or she would just need to step up her game entirely. Watching the blonde squirm beneath her influence was always an entertaining time.

Melanie took a seat in one of the stools next to him, flipping a few errant locks of hair behind her as she gazed at him. "You alright there, big guy? You seem a little... I dunno. Unfocused."

She knew why. She had heard almost everything. However Melanie simply wanted to see where the conversation would go.

Jaune shrugged lightly. "It's nothing too big. Don't worry about it."

Green eyes narrowed in response to his words. So he trusted Ruby but not herself? Why did he feel comfortable pouring his heart out to that little girl and not her? The two of them had cracked skulls and spilt blood together the other day. As far as she was concerned that was a major bonding moment. To fight beside another person. To put your life in the hands of another. And he didn't trust her enough to talk about it?

She decided to steer the conversation in that direction, seeing how he wasn't about to do so himself. "So like, how're ya doing after that whole White Fang thing? We kicked a lot of ass, didn't we?"

A bit on the blunt side, but Melanie was nothing else if not direct. She didn't dance around issues like her sister did. Miltia was the far more cautious and careful twin. It was one reason she was having so much trouble admitting her little crush to both herself and the target of her affection.

Melanie did not have the same problem. If she wanted something, she would take it. If she wanted someone, she would take them. And if Miltia wasn't going to make a move on the boy...

"Yeah," he agreed. The word sounded hollow though. "We did."

She smiled again. "It felt good, didn't it? After what they did to Tukson and stuff."

That seemed to be the magic word which was needed, as she saw Jaune's body stiffen at the mention of the man's name. Apparently all it took to appeal to Jaune's sense of justice and morality was to bring up the murder of the shop owner.

He nodded. "Yeah." The word had more conviction in it this time. Like he meant it.

The girl stood, walking over behind the bar and browsing through a number of bottles which lined the wall. "'Cause, you know, they deserved it, right? Those stupid fucks are terrorists. They had it coming."

For long seconds there was silence. Finally after Melanie had made her choice she turned back around to look at the blonde boy. Maybe doing so was what prompted him to finally reply.

"I guess," he admitted.

Grabbing a small glass she slid it over to where she had been sitting before looking at him again. "You want some?" she asked, holding up a second glass.

He shook his head, motioning to the half-empty glass of soda he had in front of him. "Nah. I'm good."

She was disappointed for a moment, but not surprised. One day she would get him totally wasted again. And it would be a fun time for all.

He was right on one thing, however. He was good. He had done well in that fight. The images which filled her memory still made her feel tingly in all the right places from time to time.

She moved back over to her stool, nudging it slightly closer to his own before taking a seat. "You did good too," she added onto his last comment. "At the warehouse I mean. Gotta say, I totally didn't expect you to be so... I dunno. Aggressive."

Blood had stained the pure white armor plates which covered his chest and shoulders. It was symbolic in a way. The innocent and clean-cut young man had been sullied by her own world, and there was no going back after that. There was a potential for violence in him in a way she had not expected when the naive little huntsman had first walked into her life. The thought was an intriguing one.

Melanie wanted to see more of that side of him. She wanted to nurture that potential within him. It was for entirely selfish reasons, however she could argue that it was indeed for his own good. If she could break him from that stupid little dream of wanting to be a huntsman, and instead show him what life was really all about, then it would only benefit him. And if she happened to get her own personal little boy toy in the process, then that made it all the better.

Even now after the heat of the moment had passed, the imagery of Jaune imposing his will upon the White Fang members had been hot. To see him breaking noses and cut people down with his sword was a welcome change from the boy who had treated her like a damsel in distress. If he could be trained and molded in her image, if he could become her partner in crime in an entirely different way than Miltia was...

"Do you think I went too far?"

Melanie was stirred from her thoughts by the question. It took her a moment to collect herself. "Huh?"

"At the warehouse," Jaune clarified. "Do you think I went too far?"

Not a chance. Those fucking fanatics deserved it. Those pieces of shit. Those animals who were moving in on Junior's territory. They deserved far worse, in fact. "No," she answered firmly. "You did the right thing. We all did."

He frowned, but nodded. "They were bad people, right?"

People was a stretch. Melanie wasn't a racist, but when she was angry she could sometimes lose herself in using derogatory words and phrases she would not otherwise utter. "Yeah," she confirmed.

"They would have hurt other people someday if we hadn't gone there. Innocent people."

It sounded as if he was trying to convince himself of that fact more than her. Still, he wasn't exactly wrong. Terrorists didn't discriminate when it came to who was caught in the crossfire of their stupid war.

"Yup," she agreed.

Melanie took a sip from her drink. She would let himself believe whatever he needed to in order to be okay with what he did. She didn't give the violence a second thought. That was just the world they lived in. That was just life. Whether it was by the hands of a human, a faunus or Grimm, you could die at any time on any day. The world just sucked like that.

It was all the more reason to cherish what you did have in your life. It was why you had to live it to its fullest. Melanie had taken lovers in the past, but never anything long-lasting or serious. They had simply been a way to enjoy life. It had been a while since she had gotten any though. She glanced back over to the boy next to her. Jaune wasn't bad looking. He wasn't super attractive like some of the club's regular patrons, but he wasn't hard on the eyes either. He had a good physique, a cute face, and he was tall. All in all, he was very acceptable.

He might be a good post-fight fuck while she was still riding high on adrenaline. It wasn't as if she had very many options beyond scratching that itch herself. As far as she was concerned Jaune was the only option among those in Junior's employ. He was convenient, living in the same building as herself. He was safe, not being one of the filthy sleazebag customers who tried to hook up with her on an almost nightly basis. He was young, and admittedly inexperienced, but it wasn't as if she was going to let him control the pace and tempo of the action. Oh no, when it came to those fun times she was the one in control. Always and forever.

Jaune must have caught her staring at him, and she was once again broken from a non-drunken stupor by the sound of her name. "Melanie?"

She blinked a couple times before looking him in the eye rather than at his body. "Hmm?"

"You alright?"

A small smirk slipped on her lips. How precious that even now in his time of uncertainty he was concerned about her. "I'm fine," she said, adding a small nudge of her elbow to his torso. "But like, I'm supposed to be the one asking you that, right? You seem kinda off today. Don't deny it."

He shrugged. "You noticed?"

Even without overhearing his conversation with Ruby, Melanie would have been able to tell he wasn't exactly in a good place mentally. He may as well have had a bright neon sign flashing on him saying 'I'm conflicted'.

"Duh. You don't ask the kind of questions you just were unless you were like, having doubts or whatever."

Jaune grunted. Maybe he had been spending a little too much time around Junior. If the boy began to replace words with guttural noises on a regular basis she might need to separate the two for a time. Maybe give him a little rehabilitation. She didn't even know what that thought meant, but it sounded provocative enough. One which would undoubtedly make him blush if spoken with the right inflection.

It wouldn't do to have him wallowing here in his own worries. He was one stiff drink away from being a walking cliché. Might as well put those idle hands to good use.

"Make me a drink, mister bartender in training?" It was more of an order than a question.

He motioned with his head down to the glass in front of her. "You're not even done with that one yet."

With a roll of her eyes Melanie picked it up an downed the remaining contents in a single gulp. It hadn't been much, and her throat had long gotten used to the taste and burning sensation it left behind. "Problem solved," she said happily.

He frowned, but slowly pushed his stool out and made his way behind the bar. Her eyes followed him every step of the way. Not bad. Not bad at all.

Soon enough he was in front of her now, his hands pressed down upon the counter in a very Junior-esque manner. Not a good mental image to compliment her previous thoughts.

"So what'll you have?" he asked.

She hadn't thought that far ahead. So she merely fell back to a joke she had made long ago. "Make me one of those fruity girl drinks you like."

With a sigh he began to rummage around for a few bottles behind the bar. "You know it's really not funny when you make that joke more than once."

More than once? "What do you mean?"

"You already used that one. Maybe a week ago?"

Melanie did not remember making that joke before. Maybe he was just mistaken. "No way," she said. "When?"

"That night you drunk text spammed me until I came down to the bar?" The way he said it told her that he obviously expected her to remember it. She did not, however.

Melanie did have vague recollections of texting him. There was proof of it on her scroll, after all. However the rest of that night was nothing more than a hazy blur. So she had used that joke on him once already and forgotten. What else might she have said that night?

The boy seemed confident in whatever he was making, however. That alone piqued her interest. "So whatcha making?"

"It's called a strawberry sunrise. The last time you had it you said it was really good. And sweet."

The name sounded familiar. She could not place where she had heard it though.

He poured the contents into a tall glass with confidence she had not seen him possess before as a bartender. That was proof enough that he had indeed made the drink before. It was a little concerning. Most of the time she got blackout drunk, Miltia was there to take care of her and escort her back to her room. What if instead of Miltia it had been Jaune? With absolutely zero filter on already loose lips, what might she have said to him? Probably nothing bad, since he was still hanging around the club and didn't seem to be treating her any differently than before.

Moments later he presented a colorful glass to her with various layers of red, orange and pink. "Ta-da," he deadpanned.

It looked almost too pretty to ruin by drinking it, but at the same time she wanted to consciously drink something she had apparently enjoyed once before.

"Wow, look at you making drinks like a fucking pro," she returned with much the same tone of voice. "Pretty soon you'll have all the ladies stuffing tips down your pants hoping that they'll get 'em off."

He snorted. "Yeah, like that'll ever happen."

Crazier things have happened in Junior's club. Skilled and attractive bartenders just happened to attract members of the opposite, and sometimes same sex. It was an odd phenomenon which was usually fuelled by alcohol and some strange, misguided sense of trust placed in the person behind the counter who listened to all of the problems in your life.

Pulling a lien note from her pocket, Melanie gazed at the boy who now eyed her cautiously. "Why wait for tonight?"

"Wait, what?"

"I should reward my bartender for his service, right?" She leaned over the counter, aiming to slip the note down his waistband. Watching him run out of room as he tried to back away was just icing on the cake. It was so much fun to watch him squirm. "Come back, boy toy. Take your tip."

Just as Melanie outreached arm was about to find its target, a voice behind her stopped her dead in her tracks. "Don't tell me you're drunk already."

Fucking clam-jammer.

She turned to see her sister approaching with a frown on her face. Melanie would have said it was in order for her sister to protect her man from another's advances, but Miltia had put no claim on him. Until she had he was fair game to anyone and everyone, including that one black-haired rip off bitch from the other night. Even that little kid Ruby Rose.

Miltia took a seat next to her where Jaune had once been. Melanie sent a glare her way. "No, I'm not drunk," she said defensively.

"Whatever. So what's going on here?"

"Oh nothing," Melanie answered dismissively. "Just talking about the warehouse party we had."

Miltia's attention turned from her sister over to the boy behind the counter. "Why, is something wrong?"

Her voice barely hid the concern she was obviously feeling. Melanie knew her sister hadn't liked what she had seen that night. She didn't want Jaune to grow comfortable with that sort of lifestyle. She didn't want him to be good at it. Well, that was just too bad. He'd have to become a confident and ruthless fighter if he wanted to make it in this world. It didn't even have to be about the huntsman profession either. Unless you wanted to be some soft, squishy civilian at the mercy of others to protect you, you had to know how to fight. You had to be ready to go all out and hold nothing back against those who threatened you and what was yours.

"Nah," the elder twin answered in his place. "He was just telling me about how much fun it was. Isn't that right, Jaune?"

"Actually-" he began.

"Well it doesn't have to be fun," Miltia countered. "It was just a job. That doesn't mean it has to be like, enjoyable or whatever."

"Well-"

"But there's totally nothing wrong if he did have a little fun doing it, Miltia," Melanie argued back.

"And if he didn't, that's fine too, Melanie."

"What are you, his mother?"

"No, but I've had enough practice having to act like yours."

"Uh, girls?" the boy asked.

It was so precious how he meekly tried to intervene in their conversation. Melanie thwarted that attempt before he could go on, pressing a pair of fingers up against his lips. "Shhhh. The grownups are talking right now."

Miltia swatted the offending hand away from the blonde. "Don't shove your fingers in his face."

"Oh yeah? What would you like me to shove in his face?"

"How about you shove something in your own so maybe you'll finally stop talking so much."

"Bitch, please," Melanie waved dismissively. "I'm fucking funny and you know it."

"Um, I think you've totally got the wrong idea about that. People are laughing at you, not with you."

"As if."

"Truth hurts, I know," Miltia smirked annoyingly. She placed a hand on her sister's shoulder comfortingly. "But I'm like, totally here for you."

Before Melanie could reply to that, it was Jaune who once more spoke up. "I... think I'll just leave you two to sort this out," he said as he began to walk away from the bar.

Miltia turned to face him, a hand slightly outstretched after him. "Wait, Jaune. You don't have to go."

He looked back, a force smile on his face. "Nah, it's okay. I gotta get changed for tonight anyway. Junior got me something more professional to wear, remember?"

Melanie remembered, and she was sure Miltia did as well. The black suit was reminiscent of the ones Junior's regular goons wore, only this one was a little bit more ornate in appearance. It also featured a blue tie in place of the standard red, which helped bring out the color in Jaune's eyes.

However it was the small golden double crescent which Jaune wore on his left lapel which really made it stand out. It was the same symbol which adorned his shield. A family crest, perhaps? She wondered why Junior cared so much to put that much thought and detail into the outfit.

Soon enough he was away and through the staircase doors which would lead him up to the floor where their rooms were. Melanie turned back, shooting her sister an annoyed glare. "Great. Now look what you did."

"Me?" the younger twin asked incredulously. "You were the one who basically told him to shut up."

"Whatever. Things were going just fine until you showed up."

"Oh yeah? Is that why he was trying to get away while you were leaning over the bar like some tipsy whore wanting to get into Hei's pants?"

He totally had not been doing that. Sure, he may have been a little bit uncomfortable at the thought of her shoving lien down his pants, but it was all just a joke. All just another way to get him flustered in that so Jaune-like way he did. But no, Miltia had to come down and interrupt her fun.

"Whatever," Melanie whispered.

A momentary silence fell over the room as both girls sat at the bar. Melanie's half-drunk strawberry sunrise was still in front of her, and she took another sip. It really was good. It may have lacked the punch of a stronger drink, but the taste was worth the trade in that department. Maybe she should enjoy them more often.

Surprisingly it was Miltia who broke the silence first. "So how is he really?"

Melanie shrugged. "Fine, I guess." She remembered Jaune's conversation with Ruby. While she did enjoy teasing her sister, she didn't want her to get overly-jealous about the strange redhead and whatever relationship she might share with Jaune. "He's still like, kinda shaken up by the whole Tukson thing."

"About what we did to him?" Miltia asked worryingly.

"No. That he died."

"Oh."

"Like, he's okay with kicking the White Fang's ass because of it I guess," she surmised.

"I guess that makes sense..."

She shrugged again. It didn't have to make sense as far as she was concerned. It Jaune wanted to use Tukson's death as a catalyst to change and adapt to a bloody and cruel world, that was fine by her. In the end it would all be for the best. No matter how much Miltia was against the idea.

Miltia stood now, shoving the stool back into place as she walked away. "I guess I'm gonna get ready too."

"Go for it."

With her sister leaving too, Melanie was alone at the bar. She couldn't say she was surprised that the other girl had left shortly after Jaune had. That little protective crush she had on him was nauseating. Either make a move, or stop pining from afar. Otherwise some other girl might just do something about it.

Be it Ruby Rose or someone much closer to home.

The past couple days of classes had been... difficult.

It wasn't the curriculum. It wasn't the exams. It wasn't even surviving more of Professor Port's stories. It was an uneasy apprehension she felt deep in her stomach. She couldn't focus. She hated it.

Ruby sat in the library, a pen tapping rhythmically on her notebook as she did. She was supposed to be studying. She was supposed to be taking notes. However she simply couldn't concentrate right now. Not when something was wrong. Not when there might be some cruel injustice in the world that she could possibly correct.

Jaune was her friend. Nothing could or would ever change that. Even if they hadn't seen each other since the morning of initiation, they had kept in touch. They still got along great. That made the fact that they weren't on the same team all that harder to bear. She had grown to enjoy her new teammates, having at last sorted things out with Weiss, but she couldn't help but wonder what might have been.

Something was wrong. Even if he denied it, even if he tried to convince her otherwise, something was bothering him. What kind of aspiring huntress would she be if she just ignored it? Sure, he wasn't a child. He was two years her senior, in fact. He could take care of himself. However, what if just this once he couldn't? What if he had gotten himself into some kind of situation where he was in trouble and he couldn't handle it alone?

Perhaps her concern was beginning to manifest itself outwardly, as her tapping was interrupted by the sound of her partner's voice. "Ruby?" Weiss asked in that forced patient tone of voice of hers. "Is something bothering you?"

Ruby looked down to her hand and ceased its movement. A small hint of embarrassment crept onto her face as she answered. "Um, I'm fine," she lied. Wow, way to take a page from Jaune's book.

Weiss nodded. "Very well. Do try to study more quietly, please," she said as she looked back down to her own open textbook.

She tried doing so, but the words in front of her meant nothing. She would read them, but the information did not register in her brain. This was stupid. Everything was stupid. Was she just being a massive hypocrite by telling Weiss that nothing was wrong?

Ruby recalled a time several weeks earlier when Jaune had not wanted to tell her about the nightclub that he worked at. Before she thought it had been about those two girls who had answered his scroll. Like he was embarrassed about some secret, naughty relationship he was in with them. She wouldn't have cared! It wasn't as if she harbored any kind of feelings for him or anything. They were just friends. Good friends. Comrades in arms. That was like, double-friends or something.

However now she couldn't help but connect that incident to what had happened a couple days ago. How he had called her and asked more weird questions. She couldn't help but think that the reason he didn't want her coming to where he worked was because he was in some sort of trouble and didn't want her to get involved. That he didn't want to put her at risk because he was in danger.

She couldn't help but feel both touched and infuriated by the thought. It was nice that he wanted to protect her, but at the same time helping others was what she did. Helping friends was what she did. Had they not helped some innocent shop owner together the night they met? If Jaune was in trouble he should know that all he had to do was say the word and she would be there by his side. She would ensure that her whole team would be there in his time of need.

Just as her team would be there for her. No, she would not be a hypocrite. She would seek their assistance in a time like this. If nothing else, maybe getting it off her chest would allow her to concentrate on her studies until something more substantial could be done to assist Jaune.

"Hey, Yang?" she asked softly.

The girl next to her looked up from her book. "Yeah?"

"You remember Jaune, right?"

Yang's eyes looked off to the side for a second before returning to her sister. "Your buddy who puked on my boots? Hard to forget a guy like that."

"You really do keep charming company," Weiss sniped.

Ruby ignored the comment. Her partner had never met Jaune. She didn't know how cool he was or what she was missing out on by not being his friend.

"Well, he works at a club now in Vale," the redhead explained.

"Really?" Yang asked. "That's pretty cool. Nice to know he landed on his feet after that stupid transcript BS you told me about."

"Yeah," she agreed. She paused a moment, licking her lips and taking a breath before continuing. "What do you know about the White Fang?"

Her sister shot her a confused look. "Did we just completely change subjects here? What does one have to do with the other?"

There was some sort of connection. During their conversation Jaune had brought up the White Fang randomly as well. She didn't know why. However she couldn't help but feel they were involved in the boy's troubles somehow.

"No, not really. Just wondering what you know about them."

"Okay..." the blonde said uneasily. "Not much really. Just what I've heard on the news."

"Well I know a lot about them," Weiss interjected. Ruby wasn't surprised that the girl was well-read on the subject. Weiss probably knew a little bit about every topic imaginable. "They're a terrorist organization who will murder anyone who stands in the way of their twisted ideology."

Those were the kinds of stories Ruby had heard about as well. Whatever it was they were, the White Fang was rarely ever painted in a positive light by the media. Having Weiss confirm those sentiments made Ruby feel that the stories were genuine rather than mere propaganda.

"Why do you wanna know?" Yang asked.

"Yes," Weiss echoed. "Why do you even care about that gang of thugs and murderers?"

Ruby shrugged. "I dunno," she answered honestly. In reality she did not know the connection between them and Jaune. Only that he had brought them up first. Therefore she was bringing them up as well.

Yang mirrored her sister's action, and shrugged as well. "Okay then. Problem solved?"

She looked over to the one member of her team who hadn't chimed in yet. It wasn't unusual for Blake to be quiet. However it was odd for her to be shooting a glare at Weiss rather than at the book laid down in front of her.

Before the window of opportunity closed, Ruby decided to press on with the conversation. "I'm not sure what club Jaune works at," she continued. "Do you think you know a way to maybe find out?"

Yang frowned now as her attention returned to her sister. "This conversation is weird, even by your standards. You're jumping from Jaune to the White Fang and now back to Jaune. What's going on?"

Ruby wished that she knew. It would have made life so much easier.

"Yang, I think Jaune might be in trouble," she admitted. "He was acting really weird the other day. And he started talking about the White Fang for no reason. What if he was trying to tell me some sort of secret message because he couldn't say what he really wanted to?"

"What, like he was being watched or threatened or something?"

"It wouldn't surprise me," Weiss added. "The White Fang are known for their intimidation tactics, as well as targeting innocents who have nothing to do with their perverted cause."

Those words only scared Ruby even more. Jaune was absolutely innocent. He would have had nothing to do with any kind of racist agenda or terrorist organization. What if he was some sort of hostage? What if he was being blackmailed?

"I want to check up on him, but he won't tell me where he works," Ruby confessed. "Do you think there's a way we can find out?"

Yang hummed, looking down at the table. After a few moments her eyes lit up with an idea. "Maybe."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I know a guy on the bad side of town who knows about pretty much everything going down in Vale. If there's something going on with the White Fang, we could probably find out about it."

"And he might know where Jaune works?"

The blonde shrugged again. "Maybe. He's big on the club scene. So it's possible he might know about a former Beacon student being hired by one of the place's in Vale."

The thought warmed Ruby's heart. She loved Yang so much. She was always there for her, even in something like this. Ruby wished that she could be as worldly and have the kinds of connections that her sister did.

"That's great!" she exclaimed, a little too loudly if the reactions of the tables around her were any indicator. Ruby shrunk in on herself a little more before she spoke next. "When do you think we can go?"

"How does this Friday sound?"

It was a couple days away, but it was better than nothing. "Friday works. That way if we have to stay out late we won't miss curfew." Not that she would have cared even if she did. Ruby would stay out all night and break any rule she had to in order to help a friend. She would have simply dealt with the consequences down the line.

"Sounds good," Yang smiled. "It's been a while since I've gone clubbing anyway. Maybe I'll get your little boy friend to make me a drink."

"He's not by boyfriend," she protested.

"I said he was your boy friend. A friend who's a boy. Two words. There's nothing wrong about the statement, is there?"

Ruby grumbled under her breath. No, there wasn't anything wrong with what Yang had said. It was just the way it was phrased which sounded wrong.

Receiving no protests, Yang continued. "Great. So it's a date, then. We're all going out to Junior's club Friday evening."

She didn't know who Junior was, but it worked for Ruby. As long as she got to the bottom of this, it didn't matter who she had to talk to. All she cared about right now was knowing that Jaune was safe.

Come Friday night, she would make sure of it.

Author's Note: Well, this could be interesting.

I know people have been wondering about the inevitable reunion for a while now. It's coming soon. Hopefully you'll enjoy what's coming up as much as I've enjoyed planning it for months.

As always my thanks go out to everyone for reading, favoriting, reviewing, all that good stuff. I truly appreciate all of the support you've given me over the past few months.

Questions, comments or concerns? Let me know. Your feedback is always appreciated.

Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed it.