Amber (ANBR) Chapter 1
Happy Thanks Giving.
Concept: Inspired by Pineapple, the idea is Blake partnered with Jaune instead of Pyrrha.
1. Atonement
"Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Yang Xiao Long and Pyrrha Nikos. The four of you retrieved the white knight pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team RPSY (Rhapsody). Led by... Ruby Rose!" Blake spared the four center stage a glance, a small smile coming to her. Partly glad to see the sisters teamed together, they were nice and for all intents and purposes the champion seemed much the same… Then there was the Schnee.
If not for her presence she might've wished to be with the three in a team led by the starry-eyed but ultimately good-intentioned girl. But it would seem fate had different plans, said plan was a blonde boy hurling her way during Initiation. When she'd seen him she was about to use her semblance to dodge the blonde until she saw a projectile hot on his tail.
She knew now that said weapon was from the four-time champion who'd taken a fancy to him but at the time she'd acted without thinking. Deciding to begin her life of striving towards equality by saving an innocent human from clear death. So, she let him barrel into her and expertly used Gambol Shroud to swing them both down. She was shocked to find he hadn't any aura when he tried defending her against an Ursa claiming to be returning the favor for her saving his bacon.
Knowing she was stuck with him she'd unlocked it and was surprised to find he had a lot. He had his faults, but he was a rather good-natured individual putting aside his 'questionable' taste in women or more accurately snobbish racist. But altogether he was much preferable to partnering with any other boy especially those of the previously established team CRDL.
"Jaune Arc, Blake Belladonna, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie. The four of you retrieved the white rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as Team ANBR (Amber). Led by... Jaune Arc!" Blake nodded, so her partner would lead, she could accept that, he'd led them against a Deathstalker easily enough. He'd even fought beside them despite not really having a grasp on what aura was, he'd been more willing to risk death then them which spoke volumes to her. She looked over to her partner seeing his clear shock, her only response was a small smile and a reassuring nod to him.
2. Rapport
The congratulations party was pleasant enough, too loud for her taste with Nora only adding to it but it could always be worse. Like for Ruby who'd been given the cold shoulder by the icy heiress, they hadn't stayed long however their leader deciding they should unpack something she was more than happy to agree to.
Blake looked to the two males as they decided on showering order with both Jaune and Ren seeming willing to take the later uses handing it to Nora and her to settle who was first. She shrugged figuring the pink bomber wouldn't take very long if her peppy nature was telling. Thankfully Ren had a shelf for his collection literature he was more than willing to share. She couldn't help but feel the bullet proof glass was a bit much but he assured her it wasn't.
Finally, she turned to her leader who was nose deep in a comic, she rolled her eyes at the sight, supposing it was better then him having no interest in literature at all. For several second silence filled the room… then Nora got bored.
"Boring! Come on let's talk! Gotta be funner then reading like a bunch of grandmas." Blake rolled her eyes but Jaune nodded sheepishly.
"Yeah, I guess it wouldn't hurt to get to know each other a bit better huh? Well, since I'm leader I guess I'll start. Names Jaune Arc, from a lil place outside of Vale called Ansel and I've got Seven sisters, six nephews and two nieces. Um, I use a sword and shield… and I like comics and games." Blake stared her attention actually pulled from Ninja's of Love.
Seven Sisters… truly.
Apparently, Nora shared her thoughts because she wasted no time speaking up.
"Wow, Jaune-Jaune are your parents like bunny faunus or something?" She felt her bow twitch at the comment and shot a look the Valkyries way.
"Nora that's rude." Said girl looked over to her.
"Huh?"
"That comment, faunus with rabbit or rodent traits don't reproduce faster or have an abnormal sex drive." Again, she blinked before Ren spoke up.
"Forgive her, Nora and I have grown up in Mistral, such comments and euphemisms were rather abundant and Nora tends to speak before thinking often. I assure you she meant nothing by it." Jaune shrugged, but she figured a small jab was warranted.
"Well I hope she can be more considerate, I'm sure her parents raised her better than to speak so rashly." She'd expected a shrug or at worse a roll of the eyes. However, when Ren shot her a stern look she blinked a bit put off. Seeming to notice the slight tension Jaune gestured to Ren a smile on his face.
"Anyways… Ren, you wanna share, feel free to say whatever you feel comfortable with." Said boy nodded sparing her another glance before sighing.
"Lie Ren, from… was from a village called Kuroyuri…" The tone he spoke the name was all too familiar and when Nora leaned against him it wasn't exactly hard to guess the reason for him speaking in past tense. She sighed hoping she wasn't right in her assumption.
"Me and Nora are Orphans, myself since seven and Nora…" Said Ginger smiled answering herself, Blake could feel her ears fold beneath her bow.
"Don't know." Ren nodded.
"I prefer meditation and reading though I can cook and am quite skilled in martial arts. I use these." From his sleeves two green fully automatic pistols with sickle-like blades attached vertically under the barrels shot up. Jaune asked Several questions about the weapons which Ren was apparently more than happy to answer. While curiously she held back her own queries figuring she'd not exactly endeared herself to the boy and waited for Nora to speak up.
"Yahoo! My turn! Names Nora, I like walk in the parks, pancakes, breaking legs and pancakes."
"Um, you said pancakes twice." Nora nodded hands propped on her waist.
"Yep! And don't you forget it fearless leader. Don't remember where I'm from but doesn't matter cause I got Renny. Oh, and here my gal Magnhild!" abruptly said girl pulled out her weapon letting it shift to its Warhammer form.
"That's cool… Like Ruby's." Nora smiled at Jaune before looking to her expectantly.
"Well, Blakey, your turn." She stilled, that's right she should introduce herself.
"I'm, Blake, Blake Belladonna, I use a VBCS called Gambol Shroud." Jaune rose his hand like a boy at school, which she did suppose he was.
"What's a VBCS?" Rolling her eyes, she answered.
"Variant Ballistic Chain Scythe."
"Oh, neat?" She nodded.
"Very."
"So…"
"Hm?"
"Is that… it?" She blinked several times before sighing closing her book.
"I'm from… A fishing village, on an island… I have a mother and father, no siblings. And my hobby is reading." Jaune nodded.
"Like what?" She blinked before looking down at Ninja's of Love and felt a hint of pink on her cheeks.
"The Man with Two Souls, Slave to the Sword, Violet's Garden, books like that." Subtly she covered the title of her book. Jaune smiled.
"Hey I read The Man with Two Souls! It was adapted into a comic." She rolled her eyes but was thankful none the less for the out. Their musings were cut short though once the sun outside fell and night approached. Preparing for bed she looked over to her leader, his face deep in his comic again and asked.
"Hey Jaune?"
"Hm?"
"What's your opinion on Faunus?" Jaune looked over to her confused.
"What do you mean?" She sighed, she supposed it was too much to hope he'd be politically aware, slowly she shook her head.
"Nevermind, I'm heading to the shower." He nodded and she went into the bathroom, removing her ribbon and letting her cat ears show.
"Well, at least they're not bias."
At least not playing out.
3. Discernment
Jaune screamed again as he swerved to the side, barely avoiding Cardin's mace, the larger teen smirked but Jaune was too caught up in dodging to care. Nora cheered the bumbling knight on, going on about breaking burnt ginger's legs. Blake was sure he didn't hear her beyond his surprisingly feminine screams Again he avoided the larger student's mace his footwork at least clearly above most students or most in the room for that matter.
Hm? Curious.
However dodging could only get him so far and eventually the giant of a teen landed a hit, Jaune's aura endured the blow easily enough. Unfortunately, being cornered Jaune could do little against the next several and even less as Winchester continued his assault. Knowing the result Blake turned to her book before Ren asked.
"What are your thoughts?"
"Hm?"
"On our leader. How he measures to others." She nodded at that.
"Combat wise he's inadequate." Not by any real fault of his own she supposed. After all one could only get so far when not knowing about aura, in reality his family was to blame for that. Closing her book she decided to go further.
"His historical knowledge is lacking beyond a handful of battles and his dust comprehension his little to none." Honestly with how little he understood of the substance she couldn't begin to think of how he'd becomes so interested in the Schnee.
"However, he's not dumb, his grades in common curriculum are actually quite good." It was a bit jarring, how somebody who failed so hard at combat against fellow students made almost perfect grades in math, science and the like. Unless…
"No, that'd be ridiculous." Ren rose a brow.
"What was that?" Blake shook her head.
"Nothing, anyways Jaune might not be as… up to standards as us but he's hardly a lost cause. If anything, he seems rather eager to improve."
You'd have to be to face a tougher adversary time and again and not throw in the towel.
Ren nodded a faint smile on his face.
"Agreed, Jaune may have his faults but so do each of us."
"Oh, Oh I know! We should train Jaune-Jaune." Blake sighed not really denying her idea but preferring not to. After all, training somebody outside of her skill set was rather…
"Match over, the winner is Cardin Winchester!" The crowd clapped but not with any real enthusiasm as the two made their way to the locker rooms to change. Ren got up making his way down, clearly hoping to stop the burnt ginger from doing something to their leader.
She wanted to return to her book but almost immediately Nora scooted by her side that 1000 gigawatt smile plastered on her face.
"'sigh' What is it Nora?"
"I just wanted to know why you're up here instead of going with Renny?" That earned a raise of her brow.
"Isn't Ren your partner?" Nora rolled her eyes.
"You know what I mean, why aren't you going to cheer up Jaune-Jaune?"
"Because he's not two and this is the fourth time he's lost to Cardin. At this point it would do more harm than good." Nora pouted but said nothing turning away from her and making way to Ren. Blake sighed, she'd hoped it hadn't come off as unnecessarily callous but in all honesty, Cardin would mess with Jaune one way or another their intervening wouldn't help especially when Jaune clearly didn't want it.
Besides, compared to what the faunus students like Velvet had to go through Jaune's bullying was rather tame. She shook her head, no that wasn't right, she had to work on her biases.
"So Jauneyboy losing again huh, starting to make a habit of this aren't ya? Think maybe you could put up a bit of a fight for me, y'know make this a bit challenging don't wanna start going soft from having a bunch of easy wins ya know." Jaune gritted his teeth, again he was being bullied, was it really so much to hope that in a school filled with people training to save humanity and fight beside one another there wouldn't be some meathead trying to curb stomp others. Of course it was, ever since miss Goodwitch had pinned him against the large teen Winchester hadn't let up this only increasing upon learning his lineage.
"Man, I thought Arcs were supposed to be heroes or something, not shrimps." He curled his fist, really hoping he'd stop there, himself he could take but taking jabs at his family was another story.
"Guess all that war hero junk was just false advertisement huh?" That was the straw that broke the camels back as Jaune turned ready to deck the bigger man only to find a hand quickly grasp his shoulder and an odd, pleasant feeling to overtake him.
Turning he saw Ren shooting him a knowing look and judging by his monochrome palm he was using his superpower soul thingie. He then turned to Cardin a calm look on his face.
"I would suggest you stop now." Cardin's only response was a cruel smile.
"Oh yeah, or what?" It was then the bulky student was lifted in the air.
"Or I'm afraid I'll have to be more lenient to Nora's more 'volatile' urges." Cardin swallowed while Nora grinned happily as if given a mountain of pancakes.
"Okay, okay! I get the picture, now put me down." With a shrug Ren gestured to his partner who more than happily tossed said teen down. Shooting up Cardin glared at the three before leaving making sure to shoot Jaune a final threatening glare. Ren sighed looking back to Jaune who exhaled.
"Thanks guys." Nora smiled happily shooting the blonde a thumbs up.
"No problem fearless leader, what are friends for." Jaune chuckled, but Ren detected no real joy in it and decided to ask.
"Jaune, are you mad at us?" The Arc paused looking to him confused.
"Huh? Why would I be mad, you two just saved me after all."
"Yes, but. You don't actually seem very grateful… perhaps even a bit, irritated?" Jaune readied to deny but paused, before looking down. After several long moments he spoke.
"Hey Ren… Do you think, it was a mistake making me leader?" The Mistralian paused looking to his leader who appeared clearly downtrodden, finally he spoke again.
"Look, I think it's kinda obvious that I'm not like you guys, 'heh' if you hadn't jumped in there I'd been stuffed in a locker again." Ren didn't deny the claim instead waiting patiently for Jaune to finish.
"I-I think Ozpin made a mistake choosing me, in fact I'm pretty sure he did." Nora was about to speak out before she could Ren sent her a look silencing her.
"I'm not strong like Nora or composed like you, and nowhere near Blake's level. Even against the Deathstalker all I could do was block a single blow." Ren nodded to himself.
"Your right." The words made Jaune both sigh in disappointment and loosen as if a great tension had been undone. However, Ren wasn't finished speaking.
"Whether its skill, strength or experience I doubt you compare to any of us." Jaune nodded, thankful Ren at least wasn't pulling any punches.
"But, if anything I think that's why I trust you as my leader." Jaune looked up to the teen blinking in shock.
"What? But you just said I was weaker right." Ren nodded.
"Indeed, you are quite behind myself and Nora and probably Blake." Jaune nodded still not quite understanding before Ren smiled to him.
"Which is exactly why I trust you, because despite that you didn't hesitate to fight with us. True you only blocked a single blow but that didn't change that you put your life on the line for complete strangers." He readied to speak against Ren only for Nora to slug his shoulder a wide smile on her face.
"Yeah, it's just like Renny said, me and you were already safe, obviously I wasn't gonna leave Renny behind but you didn't either, even letting me launch you at that mean old Deathstalker." Jaune shook his head.
"That's not true, it's what anyone would've done." Ren shook his head.
"If that were true, I'd have come to support you the times before this when Cardin had confronted you."
Sometimes the worst action to take... is taking no action at all.
"You acted without hesitation, that alone is enough reason for me, what about you Nora." Nora nodded.
"Exactly, Jaune-Jaune's just like Renny said." The blonde smiled to them feeling embarrassed but happy, however it was short lived when Nora spoke up again.
"Hey Jaune-Jaune do you wanna train with us?" He looked up to her a brow raised.
"Train with you?" Nora nodded smiling happily taking her leaders hands in hers shaking it up and down with a grip that made the knight wince.
"Yeah, come on Jaune-Jaune, you can train with me and Renny, well I mean Renny does boring old meditating and junk but we can smash lots!" He wanted to be angry or frustrated, but it was near impossible with Nora smiling so innocently. Instead he looked over to Ren and asked with what little resistance he could manage.
"Am I… Not good enough to do it on my own." He'd expected a retort of course maybe a narrowing of eyes or glare but what he certainly hadn't expected was for the Mistralian to burst into laughter. He couldn't help but grimace.
"That bad huh?" Ren put out his hand waving it to wait.
"No, no Jaune, I didn't 'pfft' my intention was never to insult." Activating his semblance the raven haired boy struggled to reign in his laughter before looking to the slightly glaring Jaune. Curtly he lowered his head.
"I hadn't meant any insult Jaune. It's just… Who improves in school on their own?" Jaune paused and Ren took the opportunity.
"Jaune, each class we take we are helped by some the Remnant's greatest. From the day you entered you chose to benefit from the knowledge of others." Jaune stopped considering his words, he was right wasn't he. What's the difference between Nora and Ren teaching him compared to the staff.
"But, you're here to learn too, right? Training me would still be a burden." Ren shook his head, seeing that his leader was apparently stubborner then he thought he tried a different approach.
"Jaune, teaching is a more than valid method of improving as well, in fact it would help me quite a bit since you have more aura and could help me improve once we're both at a certain level. 'sigh' And frankly Nora has more stamina then I or the training room can handle." Ren put out his hand to Jaune who looked to him for several seconds, he could see it shame, irritation at knowing he was right. But also hope and so slowly he took his hand.
"Thanks… for believing in me." The two smiled before Nora swept them both into a hug.
So given Blake's personality, I can't see her and Jaune meshing too well at first, not butting heads or anything just sorta indifferent to each other. After all Blake is an introvert surrounded by humans (something she wasn't accustomed to) It's only because Yang was her partner that she was forced to open up with how forward our resident brawler is.
Due to his partner's disinterest in him this spurs Nora and Ren to confront and aid their fearless leader.
