CHAPTER EIGHT

Brought to you by the editing powers of Cr00cy and Ehbon

Side note: It's been way too long and I apologize. I could make a ton of excuses, but shit got busy and I got distracted. I'll try to be more consistent moving forward.

I'm also looking for someone to beta read if they're interested.

In other news, won my fight by TKO, which was cool. Anywho, I give you:

Punch Drunk


Hey, I know we've covered this already, but as it turns out - I've got regrets. Quite a few of them actually.

Some of those involve Jaune, some of those involve me, some involve Big Cat, and some involve...really just about every person I know.

But hey, you're the one listening to this shit, so you get to hear about them.

One of my bigger regrets is that I kept assuming we were at the end of things getting worse every time we managed to pull something off.

As it turns out, the rabbit hole of shittiness had a lot further to go.


"How bad was it?" I asked as I watched Junior wipe down a very obviously spotless bar, which I'd come to accept as a nervous tick of his.

He sighed and shook his head. "It was bad. I thought we were going to have a full blown riot on our hands. Probably would have if we hadn't gotten Jaune out of sight so fast."

I winced. "Really?"

He nodded and picked up a glass, holding it up to the light. "Might have still gone south if their boss hadn't shown up and forced everybody out. He didn't seem like the type you want to fuck with."

"Mister scary, huh? What'd he do, start yelling real loud or something? " I teased, before putting on a mock stern voice. "'This kind of behavior is unacceptable! We're terrorists, but gambling is a step too far'"

He hummed as he considered the glass. "No, he was real quiet. His shotgun, on the other hand, was quite loud."

"Oh shit." I articulated, suddenly sitting up a bit straighter.

"Pretty much." He agreed as he apparently decided that the glass wasn't clean enough and started cleaning it out all over again.

"How'd Roman take it all?" I asked, which earned me a snort.

"Loved it. Said it was high time someone knocked 'those animals' down a few pegs."

"Not the most progressive guy, Roman."

"You think?"

"What's his deal anyway?"

Junior shrugged. "Maybe he grew up poor and had to hate someone, maybe he took a beating from the Fang one day when he was still small time, maybe he's just an asshole." He hummed as he wiped the glass out once more. "Take your pick."

"I feel pretty strongly about option three." I offered.

He smirked. "Well, you certainly aren't alone in that opinion."

This was good, I needed Big Cat happy. In fact, I'd been sitting at the bar all morning trying to get him in a good enough mood that I could ask my big favor. I just needed one more big push, and I knew just where to go.

"So, how'd we make out?"

Junior's smirk grew into a full on grin as he sat the glass down and leaned on the bar.

"Like bandits. Every single one of those Fang loons put money down against our boy. The house did very well last night."

Got'em.

"Our boy, huh?" I asked with a smirk of my own. Big Cat coughed and pushed back from the bar.

"Jaune's a good kid. You should take notes." He said, awkwardly.

I nodded. "I agree. Well, on that first part at least. I was actually going to ask you about something, what with Jaune being such a good kid and all…"

He sighed and rolled his eyes. "What do you want, Em?"

"Nothing big, I just wanna invite Jaune and his friends over for a party." I said casually, not quite managing to make eye contact.

He groaned. "Em, I've told you before, we're not running a daycare."

"Unless we're talking about Mil and Mel." I countered.

"Unless we're talking about Mil and Mel." He agreed, before his brow knit together. "By the way, did you ever apologize to them? You got pretty crazy during the fig-"

"I bought them each a bottle of whatever they wanted and paid for Mel to get her hair fixed." I said, slumping in my seat. "Did you know your girls have expensive taste?"

"Yes, I do." He said tiredly, shaking his head. "But good on you, that'll go a long way with them. They understand getting rowdy, just weren't expecting it from you."

"I get excitable when Jaune's involved." I mumbled.

"Ain't that the truth." He muttered.

"What was that?"

"You know what I said." He shot back, but without any real venom. He ran a hand down his face and sighed. "Look, the kid did us a real solid back there. If you want to do something small, and I do mean small!" He emphasized when I practically hopped off my stool. "Then I guess we can do something for him and his team."

I squealed and leaned across the bar, pulling him into a hug. "You're the best, Big Cat!" He tutted as he bopped me on the nose with his wash rag.

"Get off me, brat." He scolded, not bothering to move away. "Just remember to-"

"Keep it small!" I finished for him. "Got it. Only Jaune, his team, and Ruby's team."

"Hey, we didn't say anything about those girls!" He snapped. "I don't want that bar wrecking bit-" A knock at the door of the bar, the currently closed bar, cut him off. He cocked his head to the side and stared at the door in confusion, then his eyes lit up with understanding. "Oh goddammit, Em, if that's-"

"Em?" Jaune's called from the door. "Can we go ahead and come in?"

"We brought food!" Yang's cheery voice added in.

"Hate you. Hate you so much." Junior hissed.

"Love you too, Big Cat." I said, slowly backing away from the bar. "Soooo...should I let them in?"

He rubbed his temples and cursed, then pointed at me. "We're not done with this conversation, you hear me?"

"Yes, dad." I said as I fought to keep from rolling my eyes. "I'm not hearing a no though…"

"Let your dumbass friends in." He said as he threw his rag on the bar in defeat. "But you lot aren't getting anything but what's on tap or the well, you hear me?"

"You're a saint, Big Cat."

"And don't you fucking forget it."

I grinned and turned back towards the door. "Ok, guys, you can all come in now!"

Jaune pushed open the door sheepishly, peeking his head inside like the polite young man Mama Arc raised him to be when confronted with a 'closed' sign. Then Yang practically kicked the door open, a giant grin on her face, and pushed him inside with the rest of their two teams in tow.

I don't know if I've mentioned it, but I like that girl.

If the stream of curses that left Junior's mouth as soon as he laid eyes on her were any indication, he was less of a fan.

"Easy, Big Cat, we're all friends here." I soothed. "Nobody is starting anything, right guys?" I asked, staring directly at Yang. She just shrugged and nodded.

"So long as nobody is trying to grab my ass, we should be good."

"Excellent news, we're a grab ass free bar!" I said excitedly.

"Sure we are. Try telling that to the regular crowd around here." Junior grumbled.

"We're a non-consensual grab ass free bar!" I corrected with a grin, earning smirks from Yang, Blake, and Nora, as well as a blush from Pyrrha. What a prude.

"Why are we here again?" Little miss Schnee asked with a huff from her place beside Ruby.

"You know, I was just asking myself the same quest-"

"Em, be nice." Jaune warned. What he saw in that girl I'll never know, but I owed him big, so I did something very unnatural for me. I kept my big mouth shut.

"I invited you because Jaune did us a really big solid here at the bar, and we decided to throw him a bit of a party-"

"Did we though?" Junior grumbled.

"A party that we decided to invite you all to, since you're all Jaune's friends." I stared Whitey down. "Otherwise, we'd have to tell you to get the fuck out." She made a face at that, but after a quick glance over at Ruby, who was practically vibrating with excitement, apparently decided it wasn't worth it.

Well, can't win 'em all.

"Sooo, why don't we kick things off?" I continued, rubbing my hands together. "Everyone grab a bottle of your favorite-"

"Hold up." Junior cut in, looking over the crowd. "Show of hands, how many of you are underaged?" He grunted when almost all the hands in the room shot up, with the notable exception of Jaune's team for some reason. "Drinking age in Vale is 21." He explained, nodding when the rest of the hands shot up. "Yeah, that's what I thought."

Apparently, Junior had decided to play hardball after all. I was less than impressed.

"Really, Big Cat?"

"Not my name."

"This is the hill you want to die on? Underaged drinking?"

"Hey, I run a bar." He shot back. "I can't be bending the rules for all your little friends."

"And Mel and Mil?"

"Like I said, all your little friends."

I rolled my eyes, "You realize that you're the biggest hypocrite in all of Remnant, right?"

He huffed. "I'm just concerned about corrupting the innocent."

"Didn't seem that concerned about it the other night. Seemed like you wanted to have a personal hand in it then." Yang muttered behind me.

It took a minute for that to fully process, but then my eyes widened as my head whipped back to the giant. "Big Cat, you didn't."

He coughed and played with his collar. "Well...you see...I, uh-"

I held up a hand to stop him. "Look, Junior, just save whatever weakass excuse you're about to give us for...whatever you tried to pull. I don't really want the details. Point is, I think that we're all willing to give you a 'get out of creeper-jail free' card if you just do the right thing...serve us alcohol."

Little miss Schnee balked. "I am willing to do no such thi-"

"Agreed." Yang cut in.

Weiss gasped. "Yang, how could-"

"You can drink what we have on tap." Junior allowed, tiredly. "One of the boys will-"

"I want one of those fancy drinks that Em had the other night." Yang countered, walking forward and leaning against the bar.

Junior huffed. "I'm not your personal bartender."

She cocked an eyebrow. "I'm pretty sure you're our personal whatever we want, Big Guy." She grinned as she pressed in close. "Of course, we could always run the other night back if you really feel that strongly about it."

"Or I call a few of Vale's finest to kick you all the hell out of my club." He countered.

She snorted "Yeah, sure. Can't imagine what else they might find poking around this place. Like downstairs maybe?"

"Yeah? Well can you imagine that maybe not all of the cops in Vale are the fine, upstanding citizens that you think they are? That maybe a few of them are getting more than one paycheck?" He asked, staring her down.

"Huh, guess I wasn't that off in how I handled the situation the other night then. Kinda feeling like I was doing the city a public service. Maybe I'm in the mood to put in a few more hours of community service. You know, take out the trash and such." She finished, pushing off the bar and slowly backing away, giving herself space.

This wasn't at all the way I wanted this to go. We already had Junior agreeing to let us throw the party, I didn't need Yang to try to rub it in his face too. I mean, I get it. I'm not the most forgiving person either, but her grudge was about to fuck this up for us, so I decided to step in.

Oh, and preventing senseless violence and all that jazz, I guess.

I was about halfway between Junior and her when I heard one of the most ridiculous-ass statements I could have imagined for such a high stakes situation.

"I'll make them." All eyes snapped over to Jaune, who shuffled sheepishly in place, suddenly having a hard time making eye contact.

"You'll make them?" Big Cat asked, clearly more than a little skeptical. "Jaune, I wouldn't trust you to make a rum and coke."

Jaune huffed like a particularly insulted puppy. "Easy, half rum and half coke."

We all stared at him for a moment, just really trying to adsorb the creature that was Jaune. Junior broke first, snorting then letting out one of those big, booming laughs giants like him do.

"Kid, that either makes you the worst or best bartender I've ever heard of, depending on what side of the counter you're on." He grinned as he leaned on the bar. "I'd fire your ass in a day, but you'd probably get a number or two out of it."

I've got to admit, Jaune standing there, mouth working up and down wordlessly as he tried to figure out if he was insulted or embarrassed was a sight that almost made me forgive Big Cat for being an, allegedly, giant creeper and almost starting a fight with Yang. Almost, but not quite. What he did next pushed me over the edge.

The big guy reached over the counter and slapped Jaune on the arm.

"Get back here, you mook. How am I supposed to let you go around without knowing your way around a bar?" He asked, shaking his head as Jaune awkwardly made his way to the other side of the bar. "What are you going to do when that special lady asks you to make her her favorite drink, huh?"

"It's a Strawberry Sunrise, just in case you're wondering." Yang offered helpfully, plopping herself down on one of the dark stools. Junior eyeballed her for a quick moment before grunting.

"Thought you wanted an Old Fashioned?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Is that what we were drinking the other night?"

"Yeah."

"Then that's what I want." She chirped happily.

Yang easily has more balls than any guy I've ever seen. It is both impressive and fucking terrifying. I waited for the fight to start all over again.

Surprisingly, Big Cat hummed and bumped Jaune with his elbow, nearly bowling the poor boy over. "Well, you heard the lady."

Jaune pointed at himself. "Me?"

"Yeah, you." The giant replied.

"But I don't know how to make that." Jaune replied, confused.

"Then I guess it's time you learned, huh?" Big Cat shot back, pushing a glass into the blond's hands. And just like that, the spell was broken, and the threat of impending violence fled the room. The gang made their way to the bar and found seats, breaking out the snacks they'd brought - which Junior pretended to care about dirtying up his bar for all of five minutes before letting it go.

For my part, I found a seat between Yang, to ensure that a riot didn't suddenly break out in the bar, and Nora, because...yeah, pretty much the same reason now that I think about it. We made a game out of shouting the most absurd drink orders that we could think of at Jaune and Junior, which started off pretty well - never knew that I liked 'Dark and Stormys' - but judging from the looks Junior started giving us, I'm guessing started to fall apart after an hour and a few drinks.

For instance, I'm both 90% sure that a 'Banana Sunrise' isn't a real drink, and if it was, it wouldn't be brown and bubbly and taste suspiciously like well rum and coke. However, being the magnanimous goddess that I am, I decided to let such small discrepancies slip. Luckily, so did Yang.

Besides, we had a Nora to tease.

"So, you trying to get Ren to take you home tonight?" I asked, totally not starting to slur my words.

"He does every night." The pinkette replied with a grin. "We live in the same dorm."

"Kinky." I shot back with a wink.

She hummed. "Less so than you'd think."

"I can help you fix that." I offered, because I'm a bastion of sound romantic advice and help.

She cocked an eyebrow. "Yeah? How you gonna manage that?"

"Psssh. Me and Yang can distract Jaune for a while. Easy peasy." I said, watching the blond in question try to make whatever the hell a 'Vesper' was for Weiss across the bar.

The other blonde in the equation looked up from her almost certainly not a Strawberry Sunrise. "Wait, what am I being volunteered for?"

"Don't worry about it." I assured her before turning back to Nora. "So? What do you say? Gonna get you some of that androgynous goodness?"

She snorted. "I think you're forgetting about someone."

I tsked. "Jaune will be on board."

"I meant Pyrrha. She's still pretty sore about Jaune coming back roughed up the other night by the way."

I winced at that. "Yeah, about that. I'm sorry. I-"

She cut me off with a wave. "I get it. You don't think Renny and I have taken a few bumps and bruises over the years for each other? I actually have a pretty wicked scar you might get to see if I get a few more of these in me. Point is, as far as Renny and I are concerned, your business is your business as long as Jaune's on board and comes back mostly intact. The free booze helps too."

"Notice you left Pyrrha out of that little 'we're cool' speech."

"Yup!" She chuckled, taking another sip of her drink. "Turns out she didn't have a lot of friends growing up, gets real protective of them."

Two things happened then that I wasn't a huge fan of. The first was the sudden wave of understanding and sympathy for Pyrrha that I in no way asked for or wanted. The second was the knowing look that Nora was giving me, letting me know I wasn't the only one to spot the parallel.

"Don't even." I growled.

She smirked and shrugged. "Just saying, you're gonna have a hard time shaking her."

I tsked. "We'll be fine. Yang told me she's willing to take one for the team."

"I'm fucking what?" The brawler balked.

"Relaxxxxxx." I soothed, "I just said you would keep her busy. Why, what were you thinking about?" I asked, scooching my stool a little closer to hers and wrapping an arm around her as I whispered into her ear. "Was it something naughty?"

Yang had the decency to turn the appropriate level of red I hoped she would before sputtering and choking on her drink. Nora cackled beside me, downing the rest of her beer before pushing her glass over to Big Cat to refill.

"Yeah, what about you?" She asked as the giant passed her a dark-ass beer back.

"What about me?"

"You gonna close the deal with Fearless Leader if I say yes?"

"I don't know what deal we're talking about."

"Suuurrrreeee. I bet you don't." She grinned as she took another pull.

I huffed and let go of an embarrassed Yang. "Nora, are you suggesting that I want to be...what do you call it?"

"Together together?"

"Together together with one Jaune Arc?" I finished.

"Oh, I'm not suggesting it," she replied. " I'm declaring it."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah? Do I strike you as the kinda girl that doesn't get what she wants?"

"Yup." She replied, making sure to pop the 'P'.

"Then I think you don't know me that well." I shot back.

"I think I know you all too well." She smiled sadly as she swirled the contents of her glass.

I threw back the remains of my...whatever I was drinking, before slamming the glass down on the bar harder than absolutely necessary. "How's that?"

"You're me."

"I'm you?" I asked, waving at Junior for a refill. He strangely found other places to look than in my direction.

"Yeah, I think so." She replied, leaning on the bar and pushing her beer away.

"Why's that?"

"Cause I think you're a coward."

You ever have that moment where fun drinky time becomes sad, introspective drinky time? It's always a bummer Imagine that, but it's Nora - the happiest human you know - bringing you down. It's super disappointing.

"Awwww, fuck. Nora, really?" I groaned.

She shrugged. "Just calling it like I see it."

"And how is it that's how you see it?" I asked.

She sighed tiredly. "You have what you want right in front of you, but you're too afraid to say anything because the answer could always be 'no.' Worse yet, just asking risks what you already have, and you would die before doing that."

I ran a hand down my face before turning to Yang, hoping that she'd help me talk some sense into Nora. Unfortunately, she was pretty caught up in trying to look everywhere but at us. Fucking blondes.

"You know what I think?" I asked, turning back to Nora.

"What's that?"

"You're a sad drunk."

She grinned and shrugged playfully. "Maybe. Either way, you've got bigger problems."

"Why's that?"

"Pyrrha's on her way over." She answered, gesturing towards the mop of red hair stumbling her way across the bar. "Annnddd she doesn't look particularly happy...or sober."

"I've got this." I answered.

Nora snorted, which I'll admit, didn't fill me with confidence. "Ok."

The tall, lean, toned amazon struck a pose in front me as she arrived, placing her hand on her hip and leaning in. It would have been a little bit more impressive if she hadn't tripped over herself while doing so, but I got the general idea that I was supposed to be intimidated.

"I needa talk wit U," she articulated.

"Yeah?" I asked, swiveling my stool so I was facing her and leaning against the bar. I didn't think miss Invincible Girl was the type to take a cheap shot, but you never know.

"Yea!" She agreed with a hiccup.

"And what do we need to talk about, Red?" I was vaguely aware that antagonizing this woman was a bad idea. Maybe it was my intuition, maybe it was the knowledge of her extensive competition record, maybe it was Jaune waving at me frantically from the background. We'll never really know I guess. We only know that that's exactly what I was committed to doing.

"Jaune!" She barked back.

"Oh, you mean the guy that I've spent my entire life looking after? Yeah, tell me about him, Red."

"You got him hurt!" She accused. I'll admit, that hurt more than I wanted it to, mostly because it was true. But if there's one rule of shit talking, it's that you never let that shit show.

"I got him into a fight," I countered. "That's what hurt him."

"Because of your shitty training!" The accusation rang long across the bar, causing all conversation to stop. I pushed away from the bar and got in little miss perfect's face.

"The fuck did you say to me?" I hissed.

"I said, you couldn't train a fighter if your life depended on it, much less Jaune's." She whispered back.

"Then why did he win the fight, Nikos?"

"Because one of us knows what we're doing." She said, giving me a pretty decent glare before dropping her bomb so low that only I could hear. "And has Jaune's best interests at heart."

"Step onto the fucking floor, bitch." I offered, motioning towards the dance floor.

I want you to know that nature comes with a variety of warning signs. For snakes, it's that little rattle that they do. For fish, it's the wild ass colors that they come in. For Pyrrhas, it's apparently a small, knowing smile - and suddenly walking a whole lot straighter than you were before.

If I'm being honest, Big Cat breaking out his scroll to film the whole thing probably should have been a hint too, but none of these stopped me from stepping out onto the makeshift arena with one Pyrrha Nikos.

Why? Because I was fucking pissed. I was pissed at Jaune for being partnered with this dumb bitch. I was really pissed at her for thinking she could fucking come in here and talk to me that way. But most of all? I was pissed at myself, because that shit about Jaune's best interest felt a lot more accurate than I wanted it to at the moment.

And there wasn't a goddamn thing in the world that was going to stop me from stepping out there and taking out that anger on this slut.

I'd like to tell you that the whole thing was pretty even, that I held my own against a pretty tipsy Invincible Girl, that I gave her a run for her money. Hell, I wish I could just give you an account of the way she moved, her toned muscles stretching and pulling as she jumped into action, both impossibly fast and impossibly graceful and measured at the same time. How she seemed to make a drunken bar fight an art form for all of a few moments.

But, I can only tell you what I experienced.

Bitch was fast. She was real fast. She also hit pretty fucking hard and from weird, impossible angles.

I slowly regaining consciousness sometime later along the wall of Big Cat's bar, supported by cushions that had been ripped from the backs of the various couches that populated the bar. It was to a roaring headache and the sound of familiar, if unwelcome, voices.

"This is crazy, Roman."

"Don't I fucking know it?" The gangster's grating tone replied. "But it's what she's asking me."

"Then tell her no." A firm answer came.

I remember hearing a deep sigh. "You willing to do that?"

I didn't know exactly who 'her' was, but if she was the same her that had made Roman and I go and 'handle' Bane, then I didn't want anything more to do with her. If the long silence that followed was any indication, then neither did Junior. I decided to keep my mouth, and eyes, shut for the time being.

"Yeah, thought not. Listen, Junior, big things are happening here, maybe…" I got the distinct impression that Roman was taking a long drag of something, "maybe you should just get out of here. Just for a while, huh?"

I'd only known Big Cat for a little while and I could have told him how well that shit would go over.

"This is my bar, Roman, my town. I'm not going anywhere." Came the growled response.

"Yeah, thought you'd say that." Came the tired reply. "Look, this is what's happening. She's found a way to get a hold of a goddamn tank and she's handing it over to the Fang."

What the fuck?

I felt my heart skip a beat as my mind raced considering the possibility. The woman Roman feared enough to kill one of his own friends for arming people insane enough to square off against the might of the Atlesian military. I silently begged for Junior to say something, anything, to stop this madness.

"They're fucking terrorists, Roman. Fanatics. They're going to kill people with that shit, people outside the game."

I could have leapt off the floor and kissed the big doof.

"Yeah, I know." Roman replied glumly. "But tell me what we're going to do about it? I ask again, you going to be the one to tell her no?"

Silence answered him, and I felt my heart start to sink once more.

"Ok then, have your boys report to dock number seven."

No.

"They better not-"

"I'll keep them out of it as much as I can." The gangster promised. "I just need them to help set the stage."

No. No. No. Big Cat wasn't going to let this happen, was he?

A heard a deep, tired, sigh. "What the fuck, Roman?"

"I know, man, I know." The voice answered as I heard a stool push back from the bar. "Shit is crazy, but this is the world we live in."

"You promise to take care of the boys?"

Oh gods, he was. If my heart had been sinking before, it had suddenly found the bottom of the ocean. I started to sweat, fighting to keep my body still as the panic started to set in.

"I promise to try." He answered as he made his way to the door.

I waited a few minutes after I heard the door close and I heard the sounds of Junior shuffling around behind the bar, clinking glasses together as he cleaned up for the night, before I decided to start trying to get up. An involuntary groan escaped my lips as I pushed myself upright.

"Look at that, sleeping average joins the world of the living once more." Junior snarked from behind the bar.

I stared at the giant wide-eyed as a half dozen questions died on my lips, still trying to process what I'd just heard...and the nonplussed expression on his face.

"You ok, Em?" He asked, his mouth turning downward with concern. Somehow that made it all the worse.

"Why?" I asked dumbly, still too shocked to do anything else.

He raised an eyebrow. "Wow, she really did a number on you, huh?"

I blinked in confusion, which prompted him to continue.

"Not many people dumb enough to try to take on the Invincible Girl. Don't know if you're dumb or just that head over heels for our boy."

"Jaune!" I squeaked involuntarily, suddenly aware of the lifeline Junior had thrown me by misinterpreting my question. Oh gods, I'd never needed to speak to anyone as badly as I needed to Jaune right now.

He shook his head and chuckled. "Guess that answers that question, huh?" He frowned again when I didn't rise to bait. "Em, you sure-"

I looked around the room in a panic. "Where'd he-"

"Chill." He commanded, holding up a massive hand. "Kid stayed with you as long as he could." He snorted, "Truth be told, I had to kick him out before the last shuttle to Beacon took off."

"Last shuttle?" I asked blearily, glancing at the darkness outside the front windows and suddenly realizing just how late it was.

"Yeah, you were out for a while. Kid was real worried about it. To be fair, that Pyrrha girl looked pretty broken up about it too. Don't think she meant to hit you that hard." He sighed. "Anyway, Jaune wouldn't leave until I promised that I'd get you to call him as soon as you woke up." He nodded towards my scroll, laying on the bar in front of him.

I shakily rose to my feet and walked over, reaching out hesitantly for the device and begging my hand not to shake as my fingers closed around it. My heart almost leapt out of my chest when a massive paw closed around mine.

"Hey," Junior started, apparently unaware of the heart attack he was giving me. "I know you two like to chat the night away, but you need to get some rest and Beacon classes start pretty damn early. Make sure you don't stay up too late, huh?"

I swallowed and fought to keep from freaking the fuck out. "Yeah...sure thing, Big Cat."

"Good," he nodded and released my hand, pushing back off the bar with a sigh. "Well, I'm going to head up for the night. Floor's yours, Em. Don't do anything I wouldn't do."

"Never!" I croaked, earning another concerned look from the giant before he shook his head and started for the stairs. I barely had the self-control to wait for his back to disappear around the bend before I was dialing.

"Jaune! Yeah, I'm fine! Listen, I need your help!"


Memory Lane

I wish I could tell you that I've always stood on my own and all that shit, but truth be told? I've always run to Jaune as soon as the going got rough.

Take for instance the case of one Ms. Burgundy, who was very convinced that I'd cheated on her final exam...which I had, but that's besides the point. The point was that I couldn't afford to fail another class without getting expelled. While I'm sure that I knew at some intellectual level that that wouldn't keep me out of the Arc home, the deep, deep down Em was terrified that getting kicked out of school would mean that she wasn't good enough. That the people that had spent years of their lives raising and supporting her would suddenly cast her aside.

Hey, I'm not saying that it was reasonable, I'm just saying it's what I felt.

What was worse was that I had no real good way to lie about what had happened. Rather than use and abuse my Semblance like I should, I liked to try to keep it under wraps as much as I can, I tried to swipe the answer sheet right off Ms. Burgundy's desk using good old fashioned slight of hand.

Unfortunately, there were a few things that I didn't take into account. The first being that Ms. Burgundy was less distracted by my cute and bubbly schoolgirl routine than her male coworkers. I'll admit, that one is on me. The other thing I didn't account for, which I claim no responsibility for, is that she apparently spent a decent portion of her youth working as a dealer in a Mistralean casino, and was very used to bullshit like what I'd pulled when I swiped the answer sheet off her desk.

How the fuck was I supposed to guess that?

Jaune claims that she had mentioned it a few times in class, but hey, if I was paying that close attention I wouldn't need to cheat, would I?

Point of the story is, Ms. Burgundy was not someone to be fucked with. She waited till we'd all finished taking the exam, then called me up to the front of the class and declared - correctly - that I'd cheated and that she was going to have me expelled. I thought about trying to use my Semblance on her to make her see something other than her answer sheet in my backpack, but I got the distinct feeling that she wasn't going to believe anything that came out of my mouth - not that I blame her. So, I did the only thing a panicked Em knows how to do.

"Jaune!" I had no idea what I wanted to happen honestly, it just kinda slipped out. Ms. Burgundy seemed similarly confused, because her brow knit together as she scowled at me.

"Jaune? What about Jaune?" She asked.

Yeah, what about Jaune?

To my shock however, I heard the sound of a mental chair scraping against the floor, and turning back towards the class, saw one each Jaune Arc standing up next to his desk.

"It was me, Ms. B." He stated with a level of confidence I wasn't even sure I would have had talking that much out my ass. Ms. Burgundy cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"What was you, dear?"

"I'm the one that cheated."

At this point, I had no idea where the fuck Jaune was going with any of this, so I just stood dumbfounded at the front of the room as Ms. Burgundy verbalized what I was thinking.

"What?"

He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You see, Ms. B, my Semblance is illusions."

The fuck?

"What I mean to say is that I can make people see things that aren't there, or make them see them differently." He explained. When she still stared at him blankly, he sighed again and continued. "I made you see Em, but I was the one that took the answer sheet."

Ms. Burgundy just shook her head. "Jaune, you've never shown such a talent before, I have a hard time believing you possess such a powerful Semblance and keep it under wraps."

Hey, I'm a careful girl...most of the time.

"I know it can be hard to believe, Ms. B, but watch - I'll do it now." Together we stared at a Jaune standing in the middle of the class, arms spread wide and a look of concentration on his face.

"I don't see anything, Jaune." She said after a minute.

He coughed, embarrassed. "Sorry about that, sometimes I get nervous." He explained, staring daggers at me.

Oh shit! This was my part! I whipped my gaze around to Ms. Burgundy, concentrating on her as hard as I ever had on anything. A moment later, she gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"My word! That's incredible!"

"Thanks, Ms. B." Jaune replied sheepishly.

"But Jaune, you have an A in my class, why would you steal the answers?" She asked, clearly hurt. And wasn't that a damn good question?

Jaune sighed and shrugged. "I wanted to have the highest grade. I guess I just let my competitive side get the better of me." Said the boy that hadn't so much as dreamed of joining a sports team for his entire school career.

It was a dumb lie. It was a dumb story. There were a dozen holes in it.

But you know what? It worked.

And that's the story of how we both ended up in remedial geometry.

I don't even know why I brought this up. I guess maybe what I'm trying to say is...Jaune's always been my hero, Huntsmen academy in the sky or no.


Strange Bedfellows

As we left behind the deafening roars of the artillery and marched back to the trenches, I felt my heart sink and begun looking about for Crooc, that we might make an escape from this madness together. My panic did not go unnoticed, and Light chuckled tiredly beside me.

"Relax, we're not heading back to the front just yet."

I let out a breath that I didn't know I'd been holding and asked. "Where are we bound for then?"

He nodded towards a set of forts a few miles away from the thick of the fighting, their hastily thrown together walls looking as apt to fall on their own as to crumble under enemy fire.

"We're going to meet up with the Arctic Monkeys brigade up ahead. They've agreed to help us take on the White Knights."

"Why would they do that?"

He shrugged. "Because they're bigger than either us alone, and we both hate the idea of half our pairing being somewhere else I suppose."

"And that's it?" I asked, incredulous.

"'Fraid so, my friend."

"But that doesn't make any sense!" I cried. "We're fighting together because someone else is happy!"

He turned my words over in his head for a moment, before asking. "And what would you suggest?"

I gestured towards the forts in the distance, both in shambles. "Why not build up what we love?"

He just shook his head and laughed. "That'll never happen."

I opened my mouth to retort, but Captain Fan's shouts for us to double time drowned them out.

A moment later and we were rushing towards the war once more.