Tuesday Afternoon at Shade:

Jaune yawned as he slowly walked back to his dorm. Today was a rough day to say the least. Combat class was a free day which meant instead of one on ones and general lecture, Mr. Jett let the students work on something individually or with others. As long as they weren't just sitting and talking, the students got to work on what they felt was their weakest points.

For Jaune, he worked on aura control today. While he still needed to work on his sword work, he was planning on doing that later tonight with Nebula. He would have worked on ranged attacks if he had any, but since he didn't that left aura control.

Training was basically just him using his semblance as much as possible while trying to control how much aura he lost. It didn't look like he was doing a lot physically, but mentally he was exhausted halfway through. He continued to push through class though and not take a break at all, which came back to haunt him during his other classes.

Mr. Wolff's class was rough as he had trouble focusing due to the mental strain he did for combat training, and he was pretty sure he messed up a few questions on Ms. Cavira's test. It didn't help that she was staring any student down who wasn't looking at their test either. That woman knew how to put the fear of the gods in people. He couldn't even look at his scroll throughout the day as he left it charging in his dorm. Still, he survived the day, and now it was time to log his journal, and take a quick nap before his training with Nebula.

However, once he turned the corner to his dorm he was snapped out of his thoughts as his eyes fell upon two souls at his dorm. Two very familiar souls, who looked like they were about to get into an argument. One was a blue hoody-wearing figure that was alternating between her phone, the door, and the person next to her. He could tell the hoodie was made from a thinner fabric than normal so she wouldn't die of heatstroke in the Vacuan sun. Her brunette hair was shoulder length and he could see a dark blue streak on the right side of it. He could see her hair as her hood was down. She was wearing black leggings with same color sneakers. He could see she was getting annoyed. It was most likely the person next to her.

She had the same length hair as the girl next to her but hers was a light blonde and flowed freely behind her. She had a short sleeve jean jacket that stopped around her mid-section and was wearing what looked to be some kind of black shirt. She was wearing black skinny jeans with black and white canvas sneakers.

She looked like she was arguing with the girl next to her.

As Jaune slowly approached them he could hear them bickering as usual.

"Just knock already!" the blonde one said.

"You do it! I'm nervous!"

"All that talk two days ago and now you chicken out?"

"Shut up. At least I had a plan compared to what you had back home. Besides I found him with the scroll so you should do it!"

The two began to poke and prod each other to annoy the other and it almost turned into more before he intervened. Well, more like yell.

"What are you two doing here?!"

The two stopped as the blonde one had her finger in the others mouth pulling on her cheeks, while the brunette was grinding her fists on the blonde's temple. Jaune could see the rest of their outfits. The blonde had tears in her skinny jeans and her black shirt a picture of a skull with a rose in its mouth. The brunette had what looked to be a circuit board design on her hoodie.

The two froze in this state and their eyes went as wide as dinner plates. He was there, he was actually there.

The first thing they noticed was his hair. Okay, more like moppy mess. Jaune's hair was almost to his shoulders and nearly covered his face. He's always had thick hair but it very rarely grew long. He must have forgotten to get it cut or something.

Next was his face. He had remained baby face as the day he was born. They were sure he would have grown some whiskers at this point but so far nothing. Despite that he didn't look like a child, quite the contrary. He seemed more… confident. Especially since he was glaring daggers at them right now. The Jaune they knew was skittish, heck even a coward. Now it's as though he could stare down a goliath without flinching.

Finally, there were his clothes, and what they saw made their heart skip.

He was wearing the Pumpkin Pete hoodie that everyone in the family had worked together to get for him. Sure, their were a couple of tears and poorly done stitches here and there but it was still the same hoodie. Their hearts nearly melted when they saw it, especially the stitches.

He kept it, despite everything they did to him he kept it. Also, he had to have repaired it himself, no professional tailor would make the stitches that obvious. He could've given it away, thrown it, burn it, or toss it in a lake. Seeing him not only have it, but wear it made the two freeze in place, and warm their hearts.

As the two stayed in their stunned state, a younger smaller girl pushed her way through and charged at the young man.

"JAUNEY!" she screamed in a high pitch voice. She wrapped her arms around his right leg and gave a big squeeze. The boy looked down to see the adorable thing that was hugging the life out of his leg right now. She had a white shirt on with a skirt that was a light grey, with black sneakers to boot. She had short blonde hair with a light blue bow on it.

He lifted his leg up and the little one still clung tightly to his leg. She was standing on her toes just to keep hugging it. Jaune felt butterflies in his stomach as the little girl continued to stay glued to his leg. He slowly put his leg down and put his hand on top of her head, which caused the girl to hug him ever so tighter.

The blonde boy smiled softly at the little one. No matter how much he wanted to be angry, the girl clinging to his leg would always make him smile. Her innocent smile always brought his out. He then looked back up at the older ones with a stern look. The two of them were done fighting, but they both had small but awkward smiles on their faces. Jade was scratching her cheek while Calista was whistling and looking at her scroll, which wasn't even turned on.

"I've missed you so much!" Joli squeaked out. Jaune leaned over and picked her up to return the big hug he was receiving.

"I've missed you too baby sis." He whispered in her ear. The two just stayed still, enjoying their warm embrace as the other two sisters watched and waited. A tense silence was in the air between the two sisters. They were relieved to see him well, but they also saw that glare he shot at them. They could feel the animosity their brother had towards them. Still, he hid it well with Joli.

He knelt down and let go of the little girl. He rubbed her hair and gave her a soft but sincere smile. The little girl giggled and returned the smile. He then stood up and walked over to the door but not before giving another small glare to the other two and opened the door.

"Here, we'll be more comfortable in my room than out in the hall." As soon as Jaune stepped out of the way Joli sprinted into the room and looked around. An astonished gasp escaped her lips as she saw how the Shade student decorated the room. There were posters of his favorite shows and bands, a couple of pictures of him smiling with people she's never seen before. She looked at the TV and couch, the bookshelf full of textbooks, comics, and regular books, the two beds, everything just amazed her eight-year-old self.

"You live here by yourself?!" she squealed. The other two sisters walked in and Jaune closed the door. He then locked it and deadbolt it, which didn't go unnoticed by Calista. Why did he feel the need to lock the door? Was he planning on someone coming?

"A little bit," he answered. "Sometimes my friends crash here since I have the extra bed." The boy walked over to an end table and placed his journal in the drawer. Both Jade and Calista took notice to this as well. "Aside from that and the occasional hangout place, yeah I'm here by myself."

"That's so cool! I wish I could have a room to myself!" Joli ran over to the TV and tried to find the on switch while Jade and Calista walked over to their brother. Calista kept an eye on Joli while Jade gave a small smile to her twin.

"Well, you seem to be doing well…" she mumbled. Jaune only hummed in agreement as he tossed his bed over looking for something. "So… how are classes?"

"They're fine…" He found what he was looking for and took a deep breath. He turned around, walked past his older sisters, and went over to Joli. "I think this would help." Joli turned toward her brother to see him holding a remote. She giddily took it and turned on the TV and tried to find a spot on the three-person couch.

Jaune vaulted over the couch and took a seat right next to his little sister who still had the biggest grin on her face. When both were comfortable Joli snuggled up close to her older brother as she tried to find a channel for them to watch. Jaune wrapped his arm around Joli causing the young girl to smile. As they did Calista and Jade were behind them looking at the scene. They had no idea how to feel but one feeling was prominent in both.

Jealousy.

Jaune hugged their youngest sister, told her he missed them, and was now watching TV with her. What did those two get? A cold shoulder and one or two sentences. Of course they were going to be angry and jealous.

Yet, they somewhat knew this would happen. It was one of the reasons they brought Joli. Jaune loved their little sister to death, and bringing her here, they hoped he wouldn't be so harsh to all of them. They were half right.

Calista took out her scroll and began texting something, and a few seconds later Jade's scroll went off. It was a text from Calista. She was wondering what they were going to do now. Jade told her that they should wait this out a little bit, see if the tension goes away. Calista didn't like it but trusted her sister. The blonde sister walked over to the couch and sat down but made sure to stay as far away from Jaune as possible, as she was pretty sure he wouldn't want to be next to her. Calista however, hesitated. She looked at the drawer that her brother put the book in. He seemed awful secretive about that book.

Part of her sisterly instinct told her to snoop. While it was partly curiosity, it was also because she felt like it was important. Like a secret he can't bare alone. Her more rational sisterly instinct, however, told her to leave it be. They already have a situation right now, snooping in that journal can make it worse.

The techy girl sighed and decided to leave the journal, for now at least. She took his rolling chair away from the desk and sat down and the four of them continued watching the cartoon Joli picked. The youngest one was oblivious to the awkwardness between the other three siblings.

After two hours of watching TV, a loud grumble interrupted all of them. Everyone looked at the youngest Arc who looked at her stomach. "My tummy's rumbling," she stated.

"Well we heard that!" Jaune said as he tickled Joli. The little one giggled as he continued to poke and prod her. "We can go down to the cafeteria together."

"That's all right," Calista said as she stood up. She walked over to Joli and patted her head. "I can take her down."

"I know the school. It will be quicker if I showed you." Jaune's voice was a little harsh when he said that.

"Actually I need to talk to you about something," Jade butted in. The two twins locked eyes with each other and Jaune frowned at her. However Jade kept a very fake smile on her face to fool Joli. "It'll just be a quick twin talk, that's all!" Joli gasped when she heard that.

"You told me to never talk with you guys when you were having a twin talk." She covered her ears and began to walk over to the door. "La la la la la! Don't worry I'm not listening!"

"Do you even know where to go?!" The student asked Calista. She showed the blonde her scroll, which had a map of Shade on it.

"I think I'll be fine bro, just have your twin talk with Jade, all right?" with that Calista unlocked the door and left with Joli who still had her ears covered. The male twin turned to his female counterpart and glared at her. This caused the twin to squirm a little under the gaze. Jaune was never scary when they were younger. He would try to be but overall was too kind hearted and sweet to his sisters to make a lasting impact.

Right now though, it was as if she was looking at a completely different person. If looks could kill, she would most likely be a bloody mess. Despite that there was something small in them. Very very small, almost unnoticeable. The thing was, Jade had lived with Jaune for seventeen years. She could read him like an open book. She could see the tiny tells about how he was feeling. While she can't decipher what he was feeling, she knew something was there. Sorrow? Grief? It was something, but it wasn't anger.

Jaune could do the same thing, vice versa. It was a give and take relationship. He could see that Jade was trying to read him. Normally he would probably break under her gaze, despite it being soft. He could never stand being under any of his sisters' gaze. However, he had already spent a month here at Shade. Not to mention everything that lead up to this. He wouldn't break under his sister's gaze, not here, and not now.

For a solid three minutes the two of them didn't say anything, just staring each other down. Almost as if it was a Southern Valian (Mexican) standoff. One wrong move and someone loses. Neither of them flinched, and both ignored any itch, twitch, or uncomfortable feeling they were having. Finally Jaune just sighed and walked over to his locker.

"I have training with a friend in a couple of minutes," he said. "I'll see you three when I get back." The blonde boy continued to grab anything he needed from his locker. He grabbed his armor, and as he was about to put it on he felt her grab his arm. He took a deep calming breath but clenched his fist.

"No," Jade ordered. "We are talking about this. Now." Jade could see that trying to convince him wasn't going to work. He was being evasive, but with confidence, as if he had something better to do. She wouldn't be able to use the playful sister, or the nice and sweet sister card, so she took a more… direct approach.

"We have nothing to talk about." Jaune yanked his hand away from her grip. Jade could hear the harsh coldness in his voice. She wasn't going to give up though. She grabbed his shoulder and turned him around to force him to look her in the eye.

"Well I say we do." Jade swallowed a lump in her throat. She knew something that would prod him, that would make him talk. That doesn't mean she was going to like saying it. "You aren't running away like you did from home."

When those sour words left her tongue, she hated herself. She knew that what Jaune did wasn't his fault, that he was only doing what he thought best, but she needed to goad him. And it worked. His eyes opened as wide as they could, before they went back into a deeper, darker frown.

"Like I did from home?" He said as he removed her hand from his shoulder. "You're blaming me for that?!" Jaune raised his voice as he took a step forward, causing Jade to instinctively take a step back. She wanted to say "no" but thought that this was the only way she would get him to talk to her. "I wasn't the one who kicked his own family member out, when he had nowhere else to go!"

"Well I didn't either!"

"But you didn't help me!" Jaune was yelling at this point. His voice almost caused the room to shake. "You sat there and did nothing as Dad forced me out of the family. NOTHING! You just sat back and watched!" He could feel a rock in his stomach, and a lump in his throat. He could feel tears wanted to leak out of his eyes, but it was overshadowed by his rage. "I had nothing Jade! I didn't want to hold my friends back so I couldn't go back to Beacon, I didn't have a place to rest my head, I didn't have a job, and my dad kicked me out of the family!" Jaune took a deep breath and lowered his volume. "I. Was. Alone."

Jade felt daggers stab her heart. She knew he had been through a lot, but to hear it from him? To hear his anger, sorrow, resentment, and even fear in his voice? It cut deep. Deeper than any weapon or grimm could. What Jaune said next only deepened the wounds in her heart.

"I was lucky I found someone who actually acted like family. He gave me a roof over my head, a job to feed myself, and advice to live on the streets of Vale. He told me that he was willing to give me a chance, and I made sure to take it. Something you guys never did." The boy chuckled, but it was an empty and hollow chuckle. "To make it even better, he said that if I ever needed his help, I could go to him. Sound familiar?"

It did. It was one of the things she told him when he left for Beacon.

"I even called him to send me some stuff from when I was working with him. He helped me set up this room you're standing in." He gestured all around them to emphasize his point. "So sorry if I don't want to talk to you about how I've been." He was going to turn around and grab the rest of his stuff from the locker, but something was nagging Jade. Something that was making her angry.

Jaune was blaming everything on his family. While he wasn't wrong…

"You didn't reach out to us," She said. He stopped and looked at his twin.

"What?"

"You. Didn't. Reach. Out. To us." She took a step forward and was right in front of Jaune. She had to look up to meet his eyes, but none the less she didn't feel any shorter than him. "You're blaming us for everything, but from the sounds of it, you didn't really try either!" In response, her twin scoffed.

"You expected me to call you guys? I saw the look on your faces when I came home! You hated me! You wanted nothing to do with me! After everything we've been through you acted like you didn't care what would happened to me." Jaune's voice was at it's peak, he sounded almost… hurt when he said that. "And yet you wanted me to reach out?!"

"Of course we were mad at you dumbass!" Jade pushed her twin back a couple of steps. "We had to find out from a worldwide event that our brother faked his transcripts! How did you think we were going to respond?"

"How about not kicking the only brother you have in the streets?! You said you guys would love me, day in and day out, every day, even when it would embarrass me! You said you cared about me!" Jaune's voice almost cracked as he said that. It was weird, a couple of weeks ago he probably would have been happy to see his sisters here. But as he let his thoughts wander more and more about them, they started to get dark. He was wondering if he should have taken Nolan's advice about dropping them from his life.

Seeing them here made him confused. He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with them. Except for the one specifically in front of him, he wanted to get her out.

"We do! That's why Cal, Joli, and I are here! We were worried about you, and we wanted to see you!"

"Well as you can see, I'm fine. I'm breathing, alive, and well. I didn't need your guys help to get here, to survive in Vale alone, so I don't need your help now!"

"You don't need our help?" Jade chastised.

"Yes!"

"You think you can handle yourself?"

"Yes!"

"FINE!"

Jade punched Jaune square in the mouth causing him to stumble back into the locker. He gripped his jaw and looked back up at her with shock in his eyes. Jade was shocked as well, but she didn't care. It was overpowered by her rage.

Jaune had said he didn't need his family anymore. He wasn't acknowledging everything Calista, Joli, and she had to go through just to get here, and the consequences when they return home. He didn't want to reconcile when they did. That made her blood boil.

She thought she was losing her brother. So, she took that anger out on him.

"For someone who can take care of themselves, you still can't take a hit." Jaune's shock soon turned into anger as he got back up and punched his sister in the face. She fell backwards onto the couch. She got back up and spat on the floor. "My turn!"

She charged at Jaune and wrapped her arms around him and tackled him through the door. It busted open as she slammed him into the wall of the corridor. They both let out a loud grunt, but Jaune recovered faster. He gripped his hands together and slammed down on Jade's back causing her to let go of him and fall to the ground.

He then tried to kick her, but she rolled out of the way and back on her feet. He yelled as he ran up to her and tried to punch her, but she blocked it with her arm. She then followed up with two punches in the face, then a body blow. She tried to go for his face a third time, but he caught it and snaked his arm around hers.

He tightened the grip causing strain on her arm. He then punched her one time in face and twice in the stomach. He loosened his grip on her arm and placed both of his hands on her head and was going to knee her, but he was slow with the movement and Jade caught it just in time. She tackled him to the ground and got into the mount.

She began to punch him repeatedly in the face with left and right hooks, but he eventually grabbed her head and headbutted her. Unfortunately he was so angry he wasn't really aiming and headbutted her in the forehead. The twins both gripped their heads and groaned in pain.

Jaune recovered and kicked Jade off of him causing her to stumble back. The two got back up and charged each other. Both of their hits connected with the others face causing them to momentarily be stunned. They grabbed their faces and groan before going in for another strike. Their fists connect with each other and they both recoiled and shook their hands.

A door opened and one of the other students living in the dorm stuck his head out of it.

"Hey what the hell are-"

"STAY OUT OF THIS!" Both yelled. This caused the guy to recoil in fear and shut his door to let them sort out whatever it was they were doing.

Jade swung a fist at Jaune, who surprisingly caught it. He tried to return the favor and the same thing happened to his hand. The two then started to push as much force into the other as they could. They stared angrily at each other as neither of them were giving in.

Jaune then remembered he had something his sister didn't. The surprise attack kind of threw him off so he nearly forgot about it. He took a deep breath and let a familiar warmth envelop him. Jade had no idea what was happening but she saw her brother begin to glow.

Her pupils shrunk in fear as he began to move his feet and push her ever so slightly. She tried to push back with as much force as she could but as she did, she was met with nothing to restrain her. Jaune had broken the lock.

And in return, he had jumped in the air and did a flying knee into her jaw.

She fell on her back and Jaune was in mount this time. He grabbed her neck and slammed his fist as hard as he could, with a little help from his aura.

"Did you even miss me?!" He hit her again. "Did you ever care about me?!" Another punch. "Or were all those times you told me you loved me lies!?" Jade was expecting another punch and closed her eyes in anticipation, however she didn't feel a fist connecting to her face.

Instead she heard the sound of wood breaking and a couple of woodchips fly into her cheek. She opened her eyes and looked to her left to see Jaune's fist glowing white, and it was in the wood floor. Her eyes widen at that.

What would happen if he did hit her? Would she be unconscious? Or… worst? That thought made her shutter. She felt something wet drip down on her face. She looked back up to see her brother was huffing and puffing, but what caught her vision was his eyes.

He was crying.

Tears flowed from his eyes as he continued to stare at his twin. That was when the tough guy persona broke. He let go of her neck and placed his hand on the ground next to her and asked in a hurt, low tone, "Do you even love me anymore?"

He removed his fist from the floor boards and his aura diminished. He sat back on his knees and wiped his tears from his eyes. Jade took this chance to sit back up and get her legs from under Jaune.

"Did you ever love me?" He asked again. His voice sounded even more broken than before. It sounded as if he convinced himself that she felt that way for their entire life. That everyone in their family did. She did the only thing that felt right.

She grabbed his arm and dragged him into the biggest hug she could mustered after an emotional fight like that.

"I will always love you Jaune," She whimpered. Tears fell down her face as she said that. "I will care about you. I missed you every day when you left for Beacon. I worried every day we didn't hear from you when dad…" she didn't want to finish the sentence. She didn't need to. She just stayed there and kept her brother in a warm hug. "I'm sorry if we ever made you feel that way. I am so sorry."

Jaune continued to cry into her shoulder for about ten seconds before she felt him return the hug. It wasn't as tight as hers, but it was just as warm and loving. The two stayed like this for about a minute, ignoring any passersby that looked at them.

Eventually Jade pulled back and rested her forehead against his. She had a weak smile on her face and wiped the tears from Jaune's eyes. He did the same and the two shared a small laugh.

"Let's do this somewhere not so public…" Jade whispered. Jaune just nodded his head and the twins slowly stood back up and made their way back to his room.

To be continued.

Beta Reader: TheShadowOfZama