"Are you okay Jauney?" Joli asked her older brother as she dragged her small suitcase.

"I'm fine Jules," the blonde student groaned. Whether or not that was the truth was…. questionable. He promised he would help his sister with their bags back to his dorm, and he's an Arc. Still, the fact that he had a backpack (Jade's), and a suitcase in each hand (both Cal's), it caused the little girl to worry for her only brother.

"Come on Joli," Jade said as she pulled another suitcase with her. "Jaune fights the grimm, if he can't handle being bag boy for his sisters, that's just sad."

"Well it helps that I've had a lot of practice." He grumbled that last sentence, which didn't go unnoticed by Cal and Jade.

"Don't complain," Calista teased, as she stood on her toes to rub her brother's hair. "You loved shopping with us. You always wanted to help carry our bags too." Jaune's cheeks flushed red when she said that. He did love shopping with his sisters, especially since he got to do some shopping for himself. He always helped his sisters out with their bags too. Although, that was mainly because he would only have one or two for himself while they had six or seven. Each.

"Yeah yeah… Besides mom wouldn't let me live it down if I didn't help you out."

"I know I wouldn't," Jade teased as she poked her brother's chest. He just rolled his eyes as his sister acted like an idiot. However, something he said stuck to him.

"How… how's mom doing?" The two older sisters stiffened at that. Jaune was… no is close with their mom. After all, who else was she gonna spoil the most? One of the seven daughters, or the one and only boy? And who was Jaune going to go to for a girl perspective that wouldn't have him end up in a cast or casket?

From the moment Jaune could walk and talk, he loved their mother. She was always there for him. At least, that's what he thought. Despite what happened during the incident, he still worried about her.

Just as Jade and Calista were about to answer, a laugh was heard in front of them.

"Whatta ya know!" the voice cheered. "Jaune finally became a bag bitch!" The blonde boy sighed and turned to the man taunting them.

"Hello Nolan," he greeted. The red hair student walked up to the group with a grin on his face.

"How'd you get rope into being a bag bitch?" Jaune felt his eye twitch. Not for the insult, but for the fact that Joli was right next to him.

"What's a bag bitch?" Joli asked innocently.

"Don't say that last word sweetie," Jaune scolded. "It's a naughty word." He glared back at Nolan with a squint, causing the boy to squirm. "Can you not swear in front of my little sister dude?"

"Little sister?" Nolan looked between the little one and Jaune and his eyes widened in realization. Jaune patted Joli's head.

"Nolan, I want you to meet my little sister, Joli Arc." Nolan looked down at the eight-year-old with an unreadable look in his eyes. Joli smiled happily and waved at the red haired student.

"Hello! Are you a friend of Jauney's?" She asked. Nolan just stayed silent, but nodded his head.

"And these two are Calista and Jade Arc. My older sister and my twin." He pointed to the two sisters on both sides of him.

"Wassup?" Jade greeted with a nod. Calista gave a small wave. Nolan gave no reaction whatsoever to the older girls, and he had an unreadable look on his face. He turned back to his friend.

"Your uh… your sisters huh?" he said. "There a reason as to why they're here?" Calista quirked an eyebrow at the remark.

"We missed Jauney!" Joli squeaked innocently. Nolan scowled and stared at Jaune's younger sister.

"Really?" He looked over all of the girls. "Despite kicking him out of the family? You 'missed' him?" Nolan's tone was so hostile the jovial look on Joli's face turned sour and fearful. Jade growled at Nolan while Calista glared daggers at the boy. However, the icing on the cake was Jaune. He let go of the two suitcases and shoved Nolan back a bit.

"Don't," he warned. Nolan looked over to his friend.

"Dude I-"

"I haven't forgotten what you told me. Let me handle it. So, don't." The anger the two older girls were throwing at Nolan switched to shock at their brother. Jaune was usually very passive. He didn't like stirring up trouble unless he had to.

Nolan looked between all of them and growled, but nodded his head. Jaune backed up, grabbed the suitcases, and motioned his head for his sisters to follow them. He walked past Nolan without giving a second glance. The sisters stayed still for a second but soon followed after their brother.

Calista put her hand on Joli's head and steered her away from Nolan. While she did the same thing as Jaune, Joli gave a confused and anxious look before looking away. Finally, Jade walked past the boy, but not before giving the nastiest snarl she could make. Nolan return the favor with an equally hateful snarl. With that, the red head and siblings went their separate ways.

Nolan shoved his hands in his pocket and began to mumble to himself.

"They'll turn back… they always do. When they do, I'll help him…" the baton user could feel his teeth and jaw clench and forcefully sighed to get rid of the pain it was causing. He wasn't watching where he was going and just as he was about to round the corner he bumped into someone.

"Watch where you-" he started. He stopped as soon as he saw who it was. "Oh, hey May." The beanie girl was scowling at him. "What's up?"

"We need to talk." The boy quirked an eyebrow.

"Okay, let's talk here."

"No, I mean all of us. As in the team." May's tone threw the boy off. She sounded angry. He had no idea why though.

"About what?"

"You."

Jaune used his foot on the handle to open the door to his dorm and practically kicked it open.

"Welcome back to your new home girls!' Jaune exclaimed as he walked in. Joli sprinted into the familiar room and hopped on the couch with an adorable giggle. Calista made a beeline to Jaune's desk and placed her laptop next to his and opened it up. "Well glad to see you two getting comfortable already."

"You know you love us," Jade teased as she nudged him in the ribs. He stuck out his tongue at his twin who returned the favor. When they were done, Jaune shoved the suitcases over to Calista with speed and accuracy that they fell over just in the right way so Calista could begin sifting through them.

While the blonde boy began to unstrap Jade's backpack from himself, said sister placed a hand on his shoulder and whispered in his ear.

"Hey, what was that Nolan guy talking about?" Her tone was quizzical but cautious. Calista continued to type away on her laptop, but she still had an ear open. Jaune bit his lip as Jade stared at him.

"He… I'll talk about it after my class, all right?"

"Jaune…" The boy sighed as his twin continued to stare him down. He made sure to lower his voice so Joli didn't hear him.

"He said… he said I should cut all ties with you guys." Jade blinked before snickering.

"Jaune, I'm pretty sure we did that when Dad kicked you out." While Jade was laughing her brother shook his head and tried to get her attention again.

"Jade, no. He meant permanently. As in… I forget you were ever…." He couldn't finish the sentence. Not while she was staring at him. Jade was still a little confused but Calista rolled the chair over to them.

"He means that he acts like we never existed," The brunette mumbled. The older twin looked at her brother before scoffing it off.

"Who cares, like you would actually do that," She said while waving her hand. Calista glanced at her brother to see he stared at the floor. Jade noticed this too. "Jaune?" her tone this time was low but indecisive. Like she was trying to decide what she was supposed to be feeling.

Jaune stayed silent and continued to find the floor very interesting.

Calista shuddered ever so slightly. If this was how Jaune was reacting now, how would he react if they showed up later, or waited for him? Would he still look at them? Would he be angrier than yesterday? Would he completely despise them? Could she live with that?

The blonde boy shook his head and took a deep breath.

"Look, we'll talk about it later. Not in front of Joli, okay?" The two sisters looked at their brother. They could still see some mistrust in them. Like someone had given him a bad deal and he was skeptical of taking another one. It wasn't hard to see why, but it still hurt.

The two nodded their head and he returned the favor. He looked at his scroll to see it was nine in the morning then shook his head and had a smile on his face. The fact that he could change and hide his expression that fast was a little concerning.

"All right, I have two hours before I have to head to class." He walked over to the couch and ruffled Joli's hair. "So, let's unpack and head to breakfast."

"Do we have to? Can't we just go and eat right now?" Jaune wagged his finger at her.

"Uh uh uh, none of the sass. You have to unpack if you want to eat."

"You sound like mom!" The little girl sat down, crossed her arms and pouted. Jaune sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. The little girl tried her best to swat his hands away, which he did once he made his point clear. Jade saw that they weren't going to get Joli to do something without a little better bribing. She looked over at Calista for some help but the other girl shrugged. The blonde girl groaned, looked at the backpack still on her brother's back, looked at his long hair, and got an idea.

"Jules, if you help us unpack, you can braid Jaune's hair!" she said with a crooked grin.

"She can what now?" Jaune gulped. The two older girls grinned at each other when they saw Joli's eyes light up.

"Really?!" the little one gushed.

"Yep," Calista agreed. "And we'll help you out."

"Come on Jauney! We gotta unpack!" The smaller girl was yanking her brother's arm to help her unpack her suitcase. As she did the boy glared at the girls for the impending doom of his hair. The two sisters smiled slyly as Joli began to unzip her suitcase. With her actually unpacking, everyone got to work.

Calista slid one of her suitcases underneath one of Jaune's beds, while she placed her other one next to his desk. Jade took her backpack from her twin and opened it to take out her knife .

"Heya sweetie," she mumbled to the knife. She strapped the sheathe to her black skinny jeans and took it out to see if it was scuffed while in storage. As she admired her weapon, Calista decided to be an older sister.

"Stop talking to your knife," She teased. "It's creepy." Jade rolled her eyes, twirled the blade in her fingers and pointed the tip at her dark-haired sister.

"Quiet or I'll gut you." Calista gave Jade the bird without so much as a glance at her.

As the two sisters continued to poke fun at each other, Jaune stared at them in silence. His mind was withering at what Nolan had been telling him these past few weeks.

"Would family really throw you out over something like family name?" Nolan's voice echoed. "They cared more about themselves than you! After all, why would they not have bothered to check up on you?"

Jaune shook his head and hammered his forehead a little bit. He had to get those thoughts out of his head. How can he be nice and still love them, and yet have these doubts and…

Is it hatred? He thought. No. NO! Stop that!

"Jauney?" Joli's voice called out. It was like a light in a dark cave. He turned to his little sister to see that she had stared at him with a worried look on her face. "Are you okay?" A flash of the fearful look she gave him in his sleep hit him, and his breath hitched.

"Y-yeah I'm fine." He lied. All of a sudden his room felt very cold for a few seconds and he shivered. "Just… chilly."

"But we're in a desert."

"They uh… must've blasted the AC for some reason." That seemed to convince the child and they went back to helping her unpack her books and toys from her suitcase.

That's it. Jaune thought. I need to make another appointment. Soon.

"What the hell did I do?" Nolan asked his team.

"How about poison our friend's mind with thoughts that his sisters hate him?" Brawnz retorted. The four of them were in their dorm room having a makeshift intervention for their red-haired friend. Brawnz was standing to the side of his bed with his arms crossed. May was sitting crossed leg on her bed and Roy was sitting on one of the desk chairs. Nolan meanwhile was pacing, and scoffed.

"Sorry I'm just saying what we were all thinking." The sniper of the group just groaned in disgust.

"The guy still cares about them jackass!" She yelled. "From what I saw he's trying his best to reconnect with them. So what's your problem?"

"They're just going to backstab him again! I've seen it happen!" That was when the team realized what this was. Roy looked at the ground and sighed. He got up, walked over to his partner, then put a hand on his shoulder.

"Nol, his life wasn't..." the dark-skinned student started. "We know your life was… difficult." It had to be when you grew up in a bandit tribe, especially one in Vacuo. "But Jaune's life isn't yours."

"No." Nolan slapped Roy's hand away. "I'm just the only one who knew how he felt." The three of them all had different looks on their faces. Brawnz was concern, but with a hint of anger, Roy's was filled with compassion, while May was just annoyed.

"Maybe," Brawnz started. "But do you honestly think that forcing him to go through the same shit you went through is going to help him?" Nolan cringed at what Brawnz said.

"We get it, your got dealt a crap hand," Roy said.

"That doesn't give you the right to try and force him to play it too," May concluded. Nolan looked at his team. He knew they trusted him, that they would help him through anything. They were the closest thing he could call family, and that scared him. After all, how long until they betrayed him?

"All right," he began. "I'll stop." He glared at all of his team. "But the minute they abandon him, I'll be there to help him, whether you all want me to or not. We done?" Everyone turned to Brawnz who just gave a simple head nod. With that Nolan charged out of the room.

Roy quirked an eyebrow at his leader and the tanned skin boy nodded his head. Roy left to go after Nolan and the leader just sighed.

"You good?" May asked in a concerned tone. She uncrossed her legs, walked over to the bed the Barawnz was sitting on and sat next to him.

"I dunno May…" He ran his hand through his grey gradient dyed hair, sat down, and sighed. "I do get where he's coming from. Especially since he can kind of connect with Jaune more because of this issue."

"How? I mean, Nolan was a bandit, and I'm pretty sure Jaune grew up in a house full of fighters and huntsman." Brawnz looked May in the eyes.

"And both of their families kicked them out after failing." May realized what Brawnz meant and made an "oh" sound. "Granted Nolan's nearly lead to his death, but I think that's why he's been pushing it. It's not like any of us can really connect with him on something like that." The beanie wearer sighed.

"Yeah, I still remember how he treated us first year. He could barely look us in the eyes." Not like they could blame him, but that lead to some very tight places during missions and training. They still remember the day Nolan finally trusted them.

"There's just no end to them!" Brawnz yelled. He grabbed the tusk of a boarbatusk that was charging him and let his aura absorb some of the damage. He ripped it off with a little help from his aura, which he used to stab the eye of the boar grimm.

The loud crack of a familiar rifle was heard and a beowolf that was charging the team leader keeled over. The glint of May's scope shined seventy-five meters away from the main scuffle. While she could shoot closer, she could get clearer and better shots from this distance.

"The townspeople are evacuated right?!" Roy screamed into his scroll.

"We need you to hold them off for another few minutes!" Wallace's voice echoed from the phone. Roy could still hear the hurried cries of people running away from the attack.

"We can't hold them off forever Wally!" With that Roy closed his phone and spun his blades. The creep that was charging him roared but was cut off as the dark skinned boy ripped his blades through it's jugular.

Nolan meanwhile was fending off from three beowolves circling him. The one from behind him pounced but the baton user turned and blocked the incoming bite. The grim continued to chow down on the metal prod, trying to crush it between it's powerful jaw and teeth. Nolan growled and switched the baton on.

The beowolf hissed as electricity began to seep into its body. To make matters worse, the shocking of the grimm caused it to clamp down tighter on the prod making the pain nearly unbearable, causing a vicious and brutal cycle.

Nolan heard a roar to his left and turned off his baton. He used the stunned grimm that still had it's jaw clamped down to hit the one that roared at him. Due to the electricity still burning the poor creature to a crisp, the shock transferred between the two causing them to convulse.

Nolan was about to beat the two wolves until they were nothing but a black puddle, but he forgot one thing.

The last beowolf.

It pounced on him from behind with a vicious growl and pinned him. Nolan tried to turn to face the demonic wolf but struggled underneath the weight of the beast. A familiar crack is heard and all of a sudden the weight on the boy disappeared.

"I got your six Nol!" May yelled out. Nolan got up and just growled. He could have handled that on his own.

The grimm kept coming from all sides. Nevermores, creeps, beowolves, and boarbatusks kept up the onslaught, while the team continued to push them back. Eventually it looked like the grimm were retreating.

"All right guys group up!" Brawnz called out. Roy and May began to rush over to them, but the red head of the team yelled at the grimm.

"Get back here!"

The boy pursued the retreating grimm. His leader called out to him but it fell on deaf ears as he continued to chase after them. It was dumb of him to chase them. Grimm were faster and they were told to protect the town as they evacuated. The thing about adrenaline and bloodlust was that it often doesn't follow logic.

Due to his bloodlust however, he failed to notice a white bone like fin protruding from the ground. It sifted the sand around itself as it zoomed closer to the unsuspecting huntsman-in-training. When it finally was close enough to the red head, it sprung.

The grimm that jumped out had the dorsal fin of a shark, with little rivets to help it sift through the sand. It was also very sensitive despite having the bonestructure of the grim, because that's what is uses to locate creatures from a distance. Not only that, the underside seemed to have tiny legs, most likely used to help dig down. As it jumped, tiny almost hand like appendages were on the long torso as well. Large sharp teeth flashed from the sunlight, and red eyes on either side of the shark like face glowed brightly.

The creature chomped down on Nolan causing the boy to scream, both out of fear, and pain. He had no idea how low his aura was, until the shark attacked. The grimm continued to yank it's head around while chewing on the poor boy causing him to take a massive dip in aura.

He used his prod to stab the creature in the eye causing it to let go. He then kicked in in the snout for good measure and tried to crawl away, but proved ineffective. The shark recovered and soon chomped down on Nolan's leg. It's jaw and teeth were powerful enough to destroy the rest of Nolan's Aura, and sink it's teeth into the skin and bone of Nolan's leg.

The boy cried out in pain as it felt as if his leg was about to be ripped off. However, a sharp crack is heard and the shark lets go. Nolan grabs onto his leg, trying to put pressure on the giant bite mark. However with how little stamina he had left, along with the attack, he soon found himself blacking out.

The last thing he remembered was the eyes of the grimm that nearly tore his leg off.

Some time later:

A muffled rhythmic beeping is heard as the inky void in Nolan's eyes turned lighter. He felt tired, like he wanted to sleep for a week. He realized he was in a bed, and felt something up his nose and something in his arm. He looked around with a groan as his blurry vision began to recede.

To his right was the familiar dreadlocks of his partner who looked to at Nolan with a shocked expression. In front of the bed was the leader and the only girl on the team, who also looked shocked.

Soon those shocked look turn into relief as he groaned again. He saw Brawnz turn to the other two and heard a muffle command from him. The two of them nodded and soon Brawnz left the room. Nolan tried to sit up but Roy put down his scroll and gently pushed the boy back down.

"…lax. I'll sit you up." Was what he heard from his partner. He nodded his head and let it hit the pillow. He soon felt the bed begin to adjust as Roy messed with the controls. May meanwhile, walked over to his left side and gave the guy and uncharacteristically tight hug. Not tight to constrict him, but enough for her to get her point across.

"Don't ever do that again…" He heard her mumble. An unfamiliar warmness spread in the injured student's body. May then let go and stared at him with her beanie that still covered her left eye. The right eye however, was filled with anger, and frustration.

"Or I'll put you back in here myself." Her words held no ill-will. It was an empty threat, and he's been threatened with a lot worse. Yet, this stung more than any other threat.

The door opened and a nurse and Brawnz walked back into the room. The nurse checked the machines on Nolan while brawnz greeted him.

"So new rule," he said with a sarcastic smile. "No chasing after grimm on your own. Got it?" Nolan nodded and couldn't help the smile that crept up on his face.

"All right team BRNZ," The nurse said. "I'll have to do the check up now. You'll get a messege when you can come back." With a nod all of team BRNZ began to leave the room.

"Wait!" Nolan spoke up. Everyone looked at him as he stared into his hands. "I just… Thank you, for not leaving me." He swallowed a lump that had formed in his throat. He looked up at them and seeing their eyes on him made the lump come back. "I… I…" Brawnz lifted a hand up causing Nolan to stop.

"We get it," He said with a smile. May and Roy smiled at him too. "We'll see you in a few, all right?" With a small nod, his team began to leave and the nurse did her check up. Nolan continued to smile down in his hands. He finally had a family he could trust.

The two sat on Brawnz's bed reminiscing. A small but sad smile was on Brawnz's lips, while May had a stoic look. It took a lot to get Nolan to trust them. Now? They were in danger of tossing that away. All because he thought Jaune's sisters hate him. He was being dumb. So now, even if it risked hurting the family, they were going to help him stop being a dick. From expecting the worst of people in a family. From possibly hurting Jaune as well.

After all, that's what family does.

To be continued.