A/N: It felt like eight degrees this morning. We were in the seventies Friday. Oklahoma yall.
Jaune wakes the next morning with a gasp, he had a nightmare. Going back to sleep was going to be a fruitless endeavor, he decides to go back downstairs. He finds the back door open and is immediately on guard. It's not even dawn yet and he was positive the door was closed when they went to bed. He presses his back onto the wall and inches closer to the opened door. He sighs relieved when he hears the quiet voices of Ruby and Nora quietly chatting. Jaune is very surprised upon stepping outside to see Ren already out there as well. "Hey guys." He calls softly to announce his presence. He is met by soft smiles as he sits next to Ruby. Ranger sit in comfortable silence for several minutes.
The last week had been hectic and they all missed these small quiet moments together. "What are you all doing up?" Jaune finally softly breaks the silence.
"Woke up for night watch, but we're not camping out.. sooo" Nora explains.
"Same for me." Ren adds.
"Yea, something like that, what about you?" Ruby asks leaning on Jaune.
"Bad dream." He states simply, he smiles when Ruby reaches out and squeezes his hand. His tone conveying he doesn't want to talk about it."
"I still can't believe we made it all the way here on our own." Ruby half sighs.
"We do make a pretty great team." Nora smiles.
"That we do." Ren agrees.
"Yea." Adds Jaune. "Now we only have to deal with magic, and relics, and finding the spring maiden." He half laughs.
"After all we've been through, should be a piece of cake!" The redheaded girl observes earning her laughs from her three companions.
"We've got Qrow, Oscar, Ozpin, Yang and Weiss with us now too, that should make things easier right?" Ruby adds.
"Speaking of Yang and Weiss, do they know?" Jaune points between himself and Ruby.
"I don't think so, there's been so much going on it hasn't really come up." Ruby shrugs.
"Should we tell them?" Jaune ponders.
"Why don't we see if they can figure it out on their own?" Nora offers mischievous look returning. Ren shakes his head.
"That actually sounds like a really good idea." Jaune nods in agreement.
Ruby sighs in relief. "I couldn't agree more. I'm not ready to answer a million and a half questions about us yet."
"To the socially awkward?" Jaune holds up a fist for a fistbump, Ruby taps her fist to his. "To the socially awkward." The four of them chat and watch the sunrise. Ren and Nora decide to go start breakfast. Jaune and Ruby aren't inclined to leave the solitude of the yard yet. The pair sit in silence leaning against each other. "It was a really bad nightmare." Jaune speaks quietly. Ruby looks to him waiting on him to continue. "Qrow didn't show up and Tyrian took you. That was the whole dream." She just stays quietly by his side and squeezes his hand. "He did come though, and we all made it here safely." She leans into him more pressing their shoulders together. He smiles appreciating her just being her. "I'm heading inside, coming?" Jaune asks. She decides to stay outside a bit longer.
Not long after Yang and Weiss come downstairs looking for Ruby. While the girls talk Nora and the boys start breakfast. Oscar ends up being a big help, Jaune is growing to really like the kid. They are listening to Oscars stories about farm life and sharing their stories about fighting the grimm. Oscar already feels like an official part of the group. Yang storming through the kitchen really confuses and worries the group. Weiss and Ruby follow soon after. Weiss being the one to go talk to Yang rather than Ruby is a bit surprising. The silver eyed girl explains that bringing Blake up seems to be a touchy subject with her sister. Thankfully the incident blows over quickly and Yang rejoins the group with Weiss a while later.
They all head downstairs for training. Ozpin decides to start off by having Ruby and Jaune spar first. Nora shoots Jaune a sympathetic look. Ruby doesn't seem to have any reservations about the match though. The pair circle each other a few times before Ruby makes the first move. A wild swing that Jaune dodges easily. Jaune is definitely holding back focusing on dodging and blocking. "Mister Arc, you need to work on offence as well as defense." Oz scolds. "It's alright Jaune, don't hold back!" Ruby actually looks like she's having fun with this sparring session so he shrugs and puts effort into it. Ruby is now the one blocking and dodging.
Jaune throws a right cross that comes millimeters from connecting but, much like when she sparred with Yang in the forest Ruby's instincts kick in and without meaning to she bursts into her semblance. She circles the room and is on a path straight into the young knight. "Miss Rose, no semblances!" Oz scolds quite harshly. It's enough to startle her out of her semblance causing her to crash head first into Jaune sending them both crashing to the ground with an oomph. Everyone in the room cringes that looked painful.
"Owwww" Ruby whines. "Your armor really hurts" She pouts rubbing her head.
"Yea, I kina thought we had that conversation before. You okay?" He asks helping her up.
"Yea, I'm fine more or less." She pouts.
"Man, that really left a mark though." Jaune pushes her bangs aside revealing a angry red bump on her forehead.
"Hmm, that does look rather nasty. Mister Arc, take Miss Rose upstairs and get an icepack on that if you would. The rest of you still have work to do." Oz sends them upstairs hearing none of Ruby's protests about being okay.
Once they are upstairs Jaune sits Ruby in a kitchen chair and looks the bump over. Her aura already working on healing the minor injury. "I'm really fine." She whines.
"I know, but let me fuss over you for a minute would ya?" He teases, retrieving an icepack from freezer. He moves her bangs away from the bump and gently runs his thumb over it assessing it. The two attribute the gentle warming to the close contact. "Your aura must be kicking into overdrive, the bump shrank by half already." He has a thought and quickly before he puts the icepack to her head he runs his fingers through her hair. She blinks up at him wide eyed with a gentle smile on her face. He runs his fingers through her hair again and this time she closes her eyes leaning her head into his hand. Her eyes shoot open when the wet cold of the icepack makes contact with her forehead. She whines at him but he tutts at her teasingly. The two laugh quietly. They don't see Nora watching from the doorway grinning at the cute display.
Later in the day a house meeting is called. Leonardo has suddenly changed his position and wants to meet to discuss going after Spring. It's an obvious setup and they spend most of the afternoon planning their attack. They would be meeting Leo in two days so for now, they just need to start preparing. The enemy has likely infiltrated Haven. They cannot let Haven become another school to fall. They will protect the school.
A/N: lil fluff nugget tonight, mostly.